The Emalahleni Local Municipality investigated the allegations of neglect after a recent house fire and said it was not their fault that the generator on the skit unit could not start.
Mr Lebo Mofokeng, the municipal spokesperson, said community members are seen on a video starting the skit unit that was parked by the officer on the other side of the house without communicating with the officer in charge.

“They struggled to start the skit unit because they didn’t know how to operate it, and they assumed it didn’t work, they snapped the starting rope of the skit unit,” Mofokeng said.

This outcome follows complaints that the municipality’s fire department could not save the house from burning down in Erasmus Street on November 10.
The call occurrence book was checked, and it showed that the fire was reported at 15:30.

“The first responder truck responded at about 15:40 from the fire station, and the second responder, the officer in charge of the shift, responded with the veld fire unit and arrived at the scene at 16:00.’’

Google Maps was pulled, and it shows that it takes about 11 minutes to do the 5.7km drive from the fire station in a car.

“A fire truck carrying 10 000 litres of water will take longer to arrive at the scene taking into consideration the speed humps and the traffic on the N4 bridge,” Mofokeng explained the time it took the fire truck to get to the house because the owner of the house alleged that the truck got lost on its way to his burning house.

The fire truck arrived first at the scene and connected the fire hoses to put out the fire.

The fire hose was cavitated, and they had to opt for the fire hose reel, which is also from the truck.

They connected another line to the fire hydrant for continuous water support to the fire engine.

“The lesson to be learned here is that community members are urged not to use the fire department’s resources without communicating with the officer in charge,” said Mofokeng.

According to the officer in charge, the house was almost half-burnt when they arrived on the scene, and they managed to save the other portion of the house.The homeowner said the fire department had no plan B and that is what disappoints him the most.
He said a member of the public took a speaker wire and used that to start the generator in the end.

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Please send us an email to info@witbanknews.co.za or phone us on 013 656 2490
• For more breaking and community news, visit Witbank News’ website.
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