Slindile Ntshangase faces fires head on as part of Working on Fire team

Ms Slindile Ntshangase and the women of Working on Fire (WoF) are the epitome of strong women.

With brains, beauty and physical strength, Ms Ntshangase and her peers tread where many fear to go. They fight fires in the Msukaligwa region.

Ms Ntshangase is a firefighter, in the literal and figurative sense.

Her roots are in Pongolo in northern KwaZulu-Natal, but she has made Ermelo her home and is part of a team of firefighters who have been kept busy this fire season.

Ms Ntshangase eventually wants to be part of the rescue side of firefighting, but for now is content to do her part as a forest firefighter.

She decided at a young age that she was going to be part of the emergency rescue field.

After seeing vacancies in the Highvelder in 2014, she applied and was chosen.

“That was the easy step,” she said.

The gruelling physical requirements for the job tested her mental and physical strength.

Recruits were put through rigorous rounds of sit-ups, jumping jacks and laps around a field to test their physical strength.

She passed with flying colours because she has always been an athlete, doing track and field at school.

Now a certified forest firefighter, Ms Ntshangase’s days are eventful, if not physically draining.

With the fire season reaching its peak, Ms Ntshangase is called out to many fires in the region.

This means she goes for months without going back home to her loved ones in Pongolo, as the fire season is from May to November.

She said the daily physical training with the whole WoF team is the highlight of her day.

She has seen many fires and recalled the Knysna fires last year as her most challenging to date as the WoF team was called out to help in the Western Cape.

The Knysna fires marked the most severe natural disaster last year. For months on end, Knysna and its surroundings were smouldering with a blaze leaving a wave of destruction in its path as homes were burnt to the ground.

The fires resulted in the single largest deployment of firefighters by WoF in the South African history.

Ms Ntshangase was part of the WoF team from Mpumalanga.

“Those fires were out of control, it was devastating to the people living there and the forest and was physically draining,” Ms Ntshangase said.

Despite doing her dream job, Ms Ntshangase is not content to sit idle, but wants to study further in her career.

“The goal is to be a part of the rescue team that fights all kinds of fires and go on rescue missions.”

With such a demanding job, time is limited, but Ms Ntshangase is adamant that she will eventually settle down and have a dozen babies.

This woman is certainly a rock and lives by her motto in everything that she does and says: “Fight fires aggressively, but provide safety first.”

During this Women’s Month, Ms Ntshangase wishes for every woman to stand up for herself, do what is best for themselves and to continue to be the shining examples that they are.