Johannesburg Emergency Management Services (EMS), one of Africa’s biggest such units, is dogged by a shortage of fire engines. It requires hundreds of millions of rand to address the crisis.
The fire brigade forms part of the city’s first responders, and a shortage of fire engines could put residents’ lives at risk. The risk of fires, particularly in informal settlements, rises dramatically in winter.
In April, two separate fires swept through parts of the sprawling Alexandra township, resulting in about 30 people losing their shacks and belongings.
Joburg EMS says on its website it has 31 fire stations servicing the metro’s seven regions.
Its emergency and firefighting staff cope with about 250,000 calls a year.
Joburg EMS spokesperson Robert Mulaudzi told Business Day that the metro, which has a population of 6-million residents, actually has 29 operational fire stations within a 3km-5km radius from each other. This allows them to be “able to support each other on the basis of jurisdictional analysis”. On completion, the Central Fire Station, which is under construction, will take the number to 30.
In a recent interview with eNCA, Mulaudzi, a trained firefighter, said that due to the shortage of fire engines the city had to call on colleagues from Ekurhuleni and Tshwane “to assist us as and when we have major incidents that require more resources than we have”.
Responding to questions from Business Day, Mulaudzi said the metro has advertised a tender for one-off procurement of fire and rescue vehicles. “A service provider has been appointed and the city is negotiating the service-level agreement with the appointed service provider.”
The procurement is aimed at alleviating short-term challenges. “The city is busy with a new, three-year tender procurement process for fire and rescue vehicles with the aim of ensuring a long-term solution to the current challenge.”
On January 16, former Joburg mayor Mpho Phalatse, with erstwhile group corporate and shared services MMC Leah Knott, launched the manufacturing of the city’s fire and rescue vehicles (also called the red fleet) at the Marcé Fire Fighting Technology business premises in Lyttelton, Tshwane.
The contract, valued at about R178m, was awarded in May 2022. At the launch, Phalatse said 17 specialised vehicles will be delivered to the city over the next year.
Maintenance
Asked about the city’s red fleet, Mulaudzi said the metro has 16 fire engines, 15 vehicles to fight grass fires, seven rapid intervention vehicles, one ladder truck, one hydraulic platform, two water tankers, three incident command vehicles, one heavy rescue vehicle, one industrial pumper, two Hazmat vehicles, one spillage response vehicle and two swift water rescue vehicles with boats.
The total combined fire and rescue vehicles number 52, but from time to time they need repairs and maintenance. They are prone to other mechanical challenges and their availability differs from day to day, the Joburg EMS spokesperson said.
A risk analysis shows the metro requires 92 fire and rescue vehicles, with each fire station having one fire engine supported by other categories of rescue vehicles, he said.
The 52 vehicles leave “the city with a shortfall of 40. First turnout fire engines are 16 while the city requires 30, which leaves the city with a shortfall of 14 out of the overall shortfall of 40,” Mulaudzi said.
Contract disaster
A total R378m is required for the metro’s fire stations to be equipped with one fire engine each, Mulaudzi said. “However, this figure will exclude the cost of the other [fire and rescue vehicle] categories, which would be at a cost of about R250m.”
The metro is aware of the challenges affecting its response to fires. “More efforts on concluding procurement processes are being put in place. In the meantime the city is on the ground with communities implementing its proactive approach,” he said.
The approach includes community education and awareness campaigns such as “Learn not to burn” and “How to report fire incidents” directed at historically affected areas.
In April 2021, Business Day reported on a court ruling that declared Joburg’s multimillion-rand tender to procure 92 fire engines illegal and unconstitutional.
At the time, former mayor Herman Mashaba said his multiparty government had “inherited a disaster of a contract for R161m” entered into in 2015.
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