Trained firefighters emerge from city’s new training centre
THIRTY-FOUR firefighters, which included five women, graduated from the new Illovu Training Centre, which was also officially opened in Lower Illovo on Friday, 16 August
Ethekwini Municipality’s chairman of governance and human resources committee, Cllr Nondumiso Cele congratulated graduates on their commitment to be firefighters.
“The municipality is prepared to assist the youth with employment, as we have a lot of opportunities and we are prepared to help them follow their career dreams. They are strong enough to carry fire fighting equipment as they were recruited from among 15,000 applicants. They have been involved in an extensive six-month theoretical training, which ended on Tuesday, 13 August,” said Cele.
“It is important we have well-trained firefighters. The municipality is working in partnership with the petroleum industry as two of the trainees are from Sapref,” said deputy city manager of community and emergencies services, Dr Musa Gumede.
One of the graduates, Seshan Nookiah, said he is committed to utilising the skills and knowledge he has acquired to prevent fires, save lives and protect properties.
“The training has not been easy. Wearing bunker gear and self-contained breathing operator (compressed air) and being on the ‘double’ (running) all the time has made me strong and fit for firefighting services,” he said.
The training was paid for jointly by the municipality and the Department of Labour.
“The centre has been a long time coming. It is a multi-phase project, with phase one having opened today,” said chief fire officer of Ethekwini Municipality, Mark te Water. The site, at the old South Local Council offices, was chosen as infrastructure was in place and could be modified for training purposes.
