With the summer and associated fire season properly upon us, the City of Cape Town this week said that its highly trained Fire and Rescue Service is geared up to fight any fire reported during this period.

On Wednesday, the Goodwood Fire Station displayed some of its specialised equipment that it will be using to fight fires during summer.

In a statement the City said its existing fleet comprises various specialised vehicles and equipment, including a flatbed heavy-duty cargo vehicle with a 32-ton crane capacity, two 4×4 water tankers with a 5 000l capacity, three 6×6 tankers with a 10 500l capacity, four 4×4 heavy-duty pumper firefighting vehicles, four 4×4 wildland firefighting vehicles and three off-road vehicles to support incident management teams, among other equipment.

New fleet

Some of the newly acquired vehicles added to the fleet are 11 medium wildland firefighting 4×4 vehicles with 1500l capacity. These vehicles can respond swiftly and tackle difficult sandy and mountainous terrain to fight fires, the City said.

In addition to this, the City has procured two 4×4 medium wildland firefighting vehicles as well as a heavy-duty 44m hydraulic platform for delivery in December this year.

The City said all the vehicles are well-maintained, serviced and tested, ensuring operational readiness at any given time.

According to the City, a total of 35 new junior firefighters joined its ranks in July this year after successfully completing the Fire Cadet training programme. It also pointed out that each year, the services employ a group of Wildland Firefighters on a contract basis to bolster resources over the warmer months, when the risk of veldfires is higher.

Support

Wednesday’s event in Goodwood was attended by JP Smith, Mayco member for safety and security.

“Our firemen and women are highly trained and have built on the reputation of being well prepared with a rapid response time in difficult situations. They have proven to be the best in South Africa, and we are extremely proud to be able to support them with high-end technology and equipment. As we head towards what will be a long summer with high winds and temperatures, let us support our Fire and Rescue Service when they get called out to fight a fire,” said Smith.

In the most recent financial year, the Fire and Rescue Service attended to 30 512 incidents, while in this financial year, the service will spend more than R25 million on resource investments, the City said.

The investments include:

• R12 million in building improvement to Brooklyn and Contantia Fire Stations;
• R5,75 million on additional specialised services;
• R5 million on minor building and fencing upgrades;
• R3 million on the initial works at the new Langa Fire Station;
• R1,6 million on replacing firefighting equipment.

In the event of an emergency, call the City’s Public Emergency Communication Centre on 021 480 77000 from a cell phone.

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