Three CoCT firefighter vehicles stoned over the weekend

Three firefighter vehicles were stoned in less than 24 hours over the past weekend.

In a statement, the City said that firefighters from Gugulethu’s vehicle was stoned on Saturday, resulting the windscreen and side passenger window being damaged in Manenberg.

The second incident occurred just after 23:00 on Saturday when pedestrians stoned a fire vehicle from Wynberg close to the Gugulethu Fire station. Again, the windscreen and side passenger window were damaged.

On Sunday, just before 1am, community members stoned firefighters as they responded to a fire, where informal structures were alight in Isikhova Street, in Mfuleni.

Mayco member for safety and security, JP Smith, said it appears firefighters are again being targeted by the very people they are trained and deployed to assist.

‘’After a period of relative calm, it now appears that our firefighters are once more the target of senseless and dangerous attacks, often from the very people they are trained and deployed to help. One can’t be sure what the motivation is, but I want to reiterate to the public that attacking our emergency services staff is not the answer. In fact, all that will happen is that staff will be forced to wait for an enforcement escort before responding, which will slow down reaction times and put lives and property at unnecessary risk.’’

Done By: Mitchum George