Matsulu residents demand additional fire engines after two houses burn down
Two houses in Matsulu burned down before firefighters could extinguish the flames.
Angry community members say one fire engine is not enough to provide services for the people of the township and surrounding areas.
Early this month, two houses burnt down in Matsulu A and Matsulu B within a week.
A house burnt down in Matsulu B on Thursday, August 28, and another in eMakhosini, Matsulu A section, was reduced to ashes on Monday, September 1. It is still unclear what caused the fires and details surrounding the Matsulu B incident have not yet been made known to this publication.
It is alleged that the complete destruction of the two homes could have been avoided if fire services had responded sooner. The City of Mbombela (CoM) confirmed that the fire station in Matsulu, which was officially opened in 2019, has only one fire engine. The state-of-the-art building cost the municipality around R6.5m.
CoM spokesperson Joseph Ngala said the fire house has a total of eight employees, with two firefighters on duty per shift. “The fire engine serves Matsulu A, B and C, the Matsulu Youth Centre, and surrounding areas including the N4, Revolver Creek, Lows Creek, the R38 and Boulders,” said Ngala.
He explained that the fire engine must always be within a 30-minute radius of Matsulu to enable firefighters to respond to incidents within eight minutes.
“Matsulu’s fire engine is about seven years old. When a fire engine goes out for service, another station will be requested to react in case of an emergency. The equipment gets rotated as and when the need arises to ensure 24/7 availability of fire services,” he said.
Talking about the Matsulu A incident, Ward 13 councillor, Elajah Manyathi, said officials responded to reports of a house fire at around 18:00 on August 28. By the time firefighters arrived the blaze was uncontrollable and destroyed the entire house.
Vusi Mncunu (67), one of the family members, said he was not in the house when the fire started. His elderly wife was at a neighbour’s house. His 17-year-old grandchild saw smoke coming from one of the bedrooms and ran to call his gogo.
“We don’t know what happened, the smoke just started out of nowhere. The fire spread through the house quickly after an explosion, burning down the rooms and damaging the roof. We don’t have anything left. Everything is reduced to ashes,” said Mncunu.
Anyone able to assist the family can contact Mncunu on 072 227 2821.
