About two hours after a house caught fire in Pioneer Street, Emalahleni Fire Department was still nowhere to be seen according to eyewitnesses. This led to the house burning down on Sunday, April 9.
Allegations are the first call to Emalahleni’s fire station was made at 04:30 and by 06:00 there was still no sign of them.
One of the neighbours alleged that the local fire station was called as soon as they started seeing flames and smoke but no one bothered to come out.
A man on scene said that this was worrying as what could have happened if the fire went on to other houses and more than one building got burned.
“The employees must take action when they are called to execute their duties. If they got there when they were called, this damage would not have been so excessive” said the concerned man.
Chairman of Extension 16 Community Policing Forum (CPF), Mr Jurgens Potgieter said he rushed to the scene after receiving a call from Lourens de Jager.
“Kriel and Ogies came to our rescue and assisted in extinguishing the blazing fire. The eMalahleni team could not help us” said Potgieter.
Municipal spokesperson, Mr Kingdom Mabuza confirmed that the control room did receive a call from a community member at 04:35 but according to him fire fighters responded to the matter at hand and arrived at the house at 04:44.
“I have no idea where they get the story from because our people were on scene” continued Mabuza.
He said the team tried to put the fire under control with available resources, and part of the property was saved from further damages.
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