Rustenburg -The executive mayor of Bojanala Platinum District Municipality in North West, Matlakala Nondzaba, has dismissed claims that firemen responded to a fire at a building in Koster with empty trucks a week ago.
This followed video footage posted on social media platforms that fire trucks arrived at the burning building without water.
In the video a hysterical woman criticised the fire department’s unsuccessful attempt to extinguish the fire.
Four shops were completely gutted when a fire broke at a building housing several businesses in Cinderella, Koster, in the Kgetlengrivier local municipality on May 9.
The fire was believed to have started in a restaurant and spread to the adjacent shops. It took almost three hours for firefighters to bring the fire under control.
“It is not possible that a fire engine can leave the station with no water in it. The standard protocol is that when an engine returns from a mission, it is immediately refilled. The truth is that the fire engine ran out of water because of its size. It then had to go and refill at the nearest reservoir but was delayed because of low water pressure,” Nondzaba said.
She said according to firefighters at the scene, the fire was exacerbated by the explosion of gas cylinders in the restaurant and they had to exercise caution.
The Rustenburg fire station was requested to assist extinguish the fire, and local farmers provided water tankers to engines in a bid to stop the fire.
Democratic Alliance councillor in Kgetlengrivier municipality, Mduduzi Maphanga, said firefighters in the municipality could have extinguished the fire much sooner, and possibly limited its destruction, if the fire hydrants were fully operational.
“This incident emphasises the water crisis in Kgetlengrivier and the devastation it has on the community.
“It is the municipality’s responsibility to ensure that the fire hydrant and reservoirs are connected to the main water supply of the town as a general rule,” he said.
He said the fire department responded to the fire, but soon depleted the one kilolitre tank in fighting the blaze.
“According to firefighters on the scene, once the truck ran out of water, they connected the line to the fire hydrant, but there was no water supply. They then went to the reservoir, which was also empty,” he said.
“The firefighters then had to call a municipal official to assist to open the water supply to the fire hydrants …”
The chief whip of the North West Provincial Legislature, Paul Sebegoe, in his capacity as a deployee to the Kgetleng ANC parliamentary constituency office, has called for an investigation into the incident.
He said the probe should be conducted to among others investigate the cause of the fire, if there was a slow reaction including whether the fire and emergency function is ill-equipped, inadequately resourced and or simply mismanaged to deal with such emergencies.
“It is necessary to allay the concerns of businesses and residents within the area that there will be no re-occurrence of such incidents which are threatening local economies and their safety,” he said.
