Bravery and instinct saves a Bryanston home from a fire

What started as a typical Wednesday evening on August 24 very quickly turned into chaos caused by a blaze from a veld fire.

A resident in Bryanston walked out of their house to find flames reaching more than two metres high against their property’s boundary wall, threatening to spread into their property. But according to the resident Judy Coate, if it was not for the quick thinking and bravery of two private security officers, their home might not be in one piece today.

Bhekisisa Khumalo and Moabi Modisane are reaction officers at Special Ops 99 and went beyond their mandate to fight the fire for close to three hours without any fire fighting training.

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“When somebody does something so phenomenal they cannot go unrecognised. They are not firefighters, they are security guards that literally saved our home,” said Coate.

She initially received a WhatsApp message on the community group about smoke in the air. Upon inspection, Coate decided to inform the Special Ops 99 private security company because the smoke was too strong and too close to the house which has a thatched roof.

Modisane was first to respond to the residence but when he saw the severity of the situation, he instantly called for backup which came in the form of Khumalo.

“The fire was very high, it was hectic. We first tried to jump the boundary wall through the electric fence which was switched off but it is quite high as well. We then connected the hosepipes so that we could stabilise the fire,” said Khumalo.

Modise added that the pair had no prior experience in battling fires, he had only been with Special Ops 99 for just more than a year and Khumalo was nearing the three-year mark.

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“I think we acted on instinct. It just came to us that this was the situation and we just had to try to help,” said Modise.

Khumalo echoed that it was simply a matter of doing what they could to help put out the fire as quickly as possible.

“I remember asking for more and more water because the minute you kill one section [of the fire], another section restarts. We kept on going back and forth for close to three hours. We didn’t think about what would happen, we knew that the fire was very dangerous even with all the smoke.”

Coate added that the family did try to contact firefighting services but had difficulty getting in touch with the correct people and locating an available truck.

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“They [Modise and Khumalo] immediately came into the property, scaled the back wall and they were out there. We passed hoses to them; they fought the fire for more than two hours just to prevent it from spreading into our property.

“If those gentlemen weren’t here, with the absence of a fire engine, I do not know what we would have done.”

After three hours, the fire had been extinguished and the pair felt dizzy and reeked of smoke. Coate and her family gave both men milk to help stabilise them due to the heavy smoke inhalation and also offered them a shower to get rid of the smoke smell.

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Modise added that among the after effects, the worst was probably when it was time to head home after he finished his night shift.

“When I knocked off that morning and took two taxis home, the looks I got from people in the taxi because of the burnt smell on my clothing, even the taxi driver was shocked and asked me what happened,” he laughed.

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