A ‘small’ fire truck without water responds to fire

Fairmount residents have questioned the effectiveness of the City’s fire brigade after an incident where overgrown grass on an abandoned property, allegedly occupied by vagrants, caught fire.

The fire occurred in the early hours of 11 September and residents claimed that the emergency services failed to respond adequately.

A resident, Ari Thompson, claimed that when residents first phoned the emergency number, they were given a runaround and that they were told, at some point, that there was no supervisor to dispatch a fire truck. “We called a private security company, and they contacted the emergency personnel who only attended to the scene an hour later, around 4am, while the fire started at around 3am,” said Thompson.

Residents claimed that a small bakkie was dispatched to help extinguish what they described as a big fire instead of the usual fire engines. They also claimed that the bakkie had none of the equipment required to ‘do the job’. According to Thompson, residents had to lend the firemen their own household equipment after they arrived at the scene.

“Even when they arrived, they had no hosepipes and we had to lend them an axe and, even worse, they didn’t have a torch. They told us the big fire engine got lost… Why are these vehicles not fitted with GPS systems?”

Thompson added that the residents had to put the fire out themselves and they are upset by the way the fire department handles the situation.

Robert Mulaudzi, the spokesperson for the Johannesburg EMS, explained that a bakkie could’ve been sent to the scene. “This was a grass fire so our members felt it was necessary for them to take grass beaters rather than using water.

“I was not at the scene but these are the equipment that we normally use. As for [the claim that] they had no hosepipes or an axe, I can’t really believe it because we always have them in the cars. [not having] a torch, I can believe.”

The fire is said to have started shortly after gunshots were heard in the area, however, this was not reported to the local police. Spokesperson for the Sandringham Police Station Captain Mohlaume Mamabolo said, “We have no report of a shooting recorded with our station from that area.”

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