Community comes together to snuff out fire
"Due to effective teamwork between those who responded, the fire was put out quite quickly." - Chris Marais
A BURNING house on the corner of Mason and Market Streets brought together emergency services and community members on the afternoon of May 27, who joined forces to extinguish the blaze that destroyed most of the building.
Chris Marais, who was nearby at the time that the call came through from Link Up, was requested to mobilise members of Vryheid Neighbourhood Watch as well as the Fire Brigade.
When he arrived at the scene, he saw black smoke billowing from the house and attempted to approach the building with fire extinguishers to calm the blaze, but could not enter the building due to the intensity of the heat and flames.
According to Chris, the fire brigade responded very quickly, arriving at the scene with the new truck. Vryheid Neighbourhood Watch were also swift in their response to the emergency. Requests for water were sent out on social media and to members of Neighbourhood Watch. Flip Oosthuisen from AbaQulusi Municipality responded with tanks of water and organised a big tanker to fill the fire truck.
“Neighbourhood Watch, the Fire Brigade and members of the community responded quickly and worked very well together,” stated Chris Marais. “If we can do it like this every time we can save a lot of lives and belongings.”
It is alleged that there were 16 people living in the house that was mostly gutted by the fire, but no one was home at the time of the blaze. KwaZulu Private Ambulance and Mercy Care were standing by at the scene in case of injuries, but fortunately, no one was injured.
“Due to effective teamwork between those who responded, the fire was put out quite quickly,” added Marais.
The intensity of the blaze was so severe that it caused all the windows to crack and explode, as well as melting the JoJo tank, believed to be full of water, at least four metres away from the flames, next to the house. The structure suffered severe water damage as well.
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