While fighting multiple veld fires which spread over a large area in Magaliesburg for the most of Thursday, September 16, the Mogale Response Services (MRS) also had to deal with several incidents of volunteers’ vehicles being pelted with stones.

MRS confirmed on their Facebook page that the fires had caused great devastation as an estimated 20 000 hectares of land was burnt and some structures were severely damaged. By 21:50 the fires were brought under control.

While two volunteers were travelling along the R24 from Tarlton to Magaliesburg to take much-needed drinking water to the firefighters who had been fighting the raging fires for hours, rocks and stones were thrown at their vehicle.

Large stones were also left on the road.

“Unfortunately, this has caused major damage to their vehicle – several other vehicles also met the same fate. It was a very sad day indeed. This kind of behaviour is despicable and intolerable,” read the MRS Facebook post.

MRS urged communities to work with emergency response services.

“Actions of this nature cause delays in response times when services are responding to sometimes life or death situations.”