Tshwane EMS calls for making fire and life safety a priority during the festive season after busy weekend
Following a weekend where fire fighters and paramedics attended to multiple incidents throughout Tshwane, the Emergency Services Department (ESD) calls on residents to consider fire and life safety a priority during the festive season. On the weekend of 18 to 20 December 2020, ESD responded to multiple incidents of vehicle and pedestrian accidents, fires in dwelling places and an animal rescue. Fire fighters rescued a husky dog from a manhole on Friday, 18 December 2020, after a community member reported at the fire station on Ben Swart Street in Rietfontein that the animal was trapped in a manhole on the corner of 16th Avenue and Nico Smith Street. A rapid response vehicle was dispatched to investigate the alert. The investigating team requested a fire truck with lifting equipment, since the dog was trapped under a concrete slab of the manhole. The concrete slab was lifted by means of a hydraulic spreader (part of the “jaws of life”) and the dog was reunited with its owner. A double-cab bakkie overturned on Soutpan Road near Onderstepoort, injuring eight occupants, including six adult males and two female children. Two male patients had to be airlifted to hospital with critical injuries, while various ambulances transported the rest of the patients to Dr George Mukhari Hospital with moderate to serious injuries.
On the afternoon of 18 December 2020, fire fighters had to extricate a trapped patient with critical injuries from a truck after he had driven into a house on Ramapuputla Street in Atteridgeville. At almost the same time, a truck and a bakkie were involved in an accident on the N1 (north) near the N4 off-ramp. The trapped driver of bakkie sustained critical injuries, and firefighters had to use the “jaws of life” to extricate him.
In the early hours (around 03h45) of Saturday, 19 December 2020, a City of Tshwane ambulance overturned while on the way to an informal dwelling (shack) fire, where it was reported that two people had died as a result of the fire and two additional patients had sustained serious injuries. The two ambulance practitioners escaped with minor injuries and were treated and released on the same day. Fire fighters arrived on the scene in Nellmapius Ext 24 to find the shack well alight with two victims still trapped inside, while members of the community were trying to extinguish the fire. A female patient with third-degree burns was found lying outside after members of the community had rescued her from the fire. The fire was subsequently extinguished and the cause of the fire is being investigated.
On the afternoon of 19 December 2020, 25 patients were transported by ambulance to Dr George Mukhari Hospital and Jubilee Hospital after two taxis had collided on Soutpan Road near Soshanguve. 17 of the patients transported to Jubilee Hospital escaped with minor to moderate injuries and one with moderate to serious injuries, while three patients with moderate to serious and four with minor to moderate injuries were transported to Dr George Mukhari Hospital.
At approximately 19:30 on 20 December 2020, fire fighters extinguished a bakkie on fire with a person of unconfirmed gender and age still inside on the R80 (Mabopane Highway) near Klip-Kruisfontein Cemetery. Fire fighters and freighters arrived on the scene and found the bakkie that had veered off the road into an embankment still on fire, with a charred body that was burnt beyond recognition still inside. The scene was handed over to the South African Police Service for investigation. Later on the same day, at around 22h50, two vehicles collided on the Bremer Street and R80 (Mabopane Highway) intersection, where two patients sustained injuries that ranged from critical to moderate to serious, and firefighters had to use specialised rescue tools to extricate one trapped patient. Paramedics treated a male and female patient on the scene and transported them to Eugene Marais Hospital and Steve Biko Hospital.
Apart from the above-mentioned incidents, fire fighters and paramedics also responded to incidents of trauma (assault), pedestrian accidents, house fires and rubbish fires, which compel us to make a repeated plea to residents to do all they possibly can to make this a safe festive season for themselves and those around them. Obey the rules of the road, ensure that you remain in places where it is safe and ensure that dwellings are safe from fires.
Source: Thabo Charles Mabaso, Deputy Chief: Public Information and Liaison Officer, City of Tshwane Emergency Services