New fire engine long overdue

LYDENBURG – For the first time in years, Thaba Chweu Municipality (TCM) is set on reinstating a disaster management centre.

This comes after TCM held a public auction where it sold off most of its unrepairable vehicles and equipment on Thursday May 6.

According to Mr Puleng Mapheto, communications manager of TCM, the municipality managed to secure R140 000 at the auction.

“The plan now is to buy a new fire truck. With the money raised from the auction, we secured a substantial deposit for a new vehicle. Buying a second-hand truck is not an option.

“The old vehicles we used broke down each time it was sent out to a fire and we don’t want to run that risk again. A tank, which will be fitted on the fire truck, has also been donated to the municipality.

“We want to get disaster management up and running as soon as possible. We were fortunate that in the time we had no trucks no major fires had been reported.”

Mapheto confirmed that once the new truck had been purchased, employees of the centre would also receive the necessary training.

The municipality has been without one for the past five years. The disarray within the disaster management centre was highlighted in April 2011, when two toddlers burnt to death after the last of the old dilapidated fire trucks had broken down en route and had to be towed back to town.

The two toddlers, Angelique (3) and Nico (2) van Niekerk, burnt to death in their bedroom despite the desperate attempts by local paramedics to douse the flames.

When the “turnaround strategy” was presented to the paper more than three years ago (under management of the province’s task team), one of the key areas that were supposed to be addressed included TCM’s disaster management.

The report stated that the centre had a shortage of vehicles and equipment (for fire and rescue).

The required intervention was said to procure vehicles and equipment. The time frame for completion of the said refurbishment was December 2013, yet none of that was achieved.

For years this department had to function with outdated fire engines, including a Ford F250, Husky fire truck and a 1950’s Bedford truck.

Both the Ford and Husky have been non-operational for a long time.

The Bedford was grounded four years ago when it spewed flames while returning from a water fill, leaving TCM with no emergency vehicles.

At the moment the town is reliant on a privately-owned fire truck belonging to Hazmat operator, Mr Deon Broekman.