The City of Cape Town has condemned the attacks on its Fire & Rescue Service staff.
According to the municipality, it recorded at least a dozen
incidents where staff were attacked or under threat, in the first seven months
of this year.
MMC for Safety & security, JP Smith, says 70% of incidents happened over weekends, where staff were either robbed at gunpoint of their cellphones or portable radios, or vehicles were stoned by volatile crowds.
‘’These attacks serve no one – what it does is result in
staff and vehicle shortages, and longer response times, as firefighters have to
wait to be escorted into volatile areas or red zones. Those additional moments
can mean the difference between life and death, but also turn what might have
been a single structure fire into something far more devastating.’’
Meanwhile, the City recorded a decline of 10 and 25%
respectively, in the number of residential fires and related fatalities in the
past year.
Khayelitsha, Philippi, Gugulethu, Mfuleni and Wallacedene
were the areas with the highest number of fire-related fatalities. Smith says
most fatalities occur overnight (between 21:00 and 06:00) on weekends, and that
the majority of victims are male.
‘’The statistics, while encouraging, can't ease the
devastation wrought by the thousands of fires that we continue to respond to
each year. That said, I do not want to take anything away from the residents,
communities, emergency services and other partners who work very hard to
prioritise fire safety education and public safety,’’ said JP Smith, Mayoral
Committee Member for Safety and Security.
‘’These trends point to the ongoing challenge around
alcohol and other substances. Handling flammable items requires vigilance and
care – something that is far more difficult to do when intoxicated. In times
like these, steer clear of open flames, for your own safety and that of those
around you,’’ he added.
In the latest incident, three men were killed in Wallacedene in the early hours of Sunday, after a fire broke out in Labaoheme street.
Done By: Mitchum George
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