LIMPOPO – In a strategic bid to prevent more fire damage during the dry-winter season, the Mayor of Mopani District Municipality, Pule Shayi, handed over brand new fire rescue vehicles to the Mopani fire fighters.

He handed over two big trucks with a capacity of 6 000 litres and a Toyota Land Cruiser, which is meant to rush to accident scenes at the Mopani Disaster Centre in Tzaneen on Thursday.

New fleet to strengthen emergency response

The trucks will be allocated to Modjadjiskloof and Hoedspruit and the Land Cruiser will remain in Tzaneen, with two more Land Cruisers expected to be delivered at the disaster centre in a few days.

The mayor said they used to attend to fires with resources which did not match the challenge. The trucks have a hydraulic light which is able to light up in areas where it is dark, while the land cruiser is built for speed in order to attend to accident scenes speedily.

“The vehicles are changing the narrative, because it comes at a time where a single minute makes a difference between a house that can be completely gutted and a life that must be saved.

“Mopani landscape has moved from a spatial to more dense area with more houses being closer to each other, meaning when a fire breaks out it is easy for more houses to be damaged, hence we are investing in good tools,” he said.

Mopani fire fighters praised and future funding announced

He also took the time to applaud the fire fighters who were able to rush and extinguish the fire which broke out at Maake Plaza shopping centre recently. He said the team were able to quickly save the shops and only one shop was completely ravaged by the fires.

He further mentioned that there is a R4.5m put aside on the next financial year for their uniforms and other equipment that fire fighters used, stating that it sounds like a lot of money, but it is important in saving of lives.