Durban - This week’s ‘Then & Now’ features The Phillip Frame Park Fire Station in New Germany with photographs brought in by reader Frans Luyt, who was the Group Loss Prevention Manager for the Frame Group until his retirement.
The Frame Group was a well-known name in textiles across South Africa, and the first photo shows the Phillip Frame Park Fire Station which was built in early 1960 in Shepstone Road (now Qashana Khuzwayo Road), New Germany.
The fireman standing next to the Willies Jeep Fire Engine was the late Jack Leversha, who started the brigade as the chief fire officer for Frame.
Fire extinguishers from Frame factories from afar afield as East London, Ladysmith and Harrismith were sent to this fire station for service. The second photograph was taken during 1992 and shows the change in name.
During 1998, the Fire Department was relocated to factory premises at Seltex in Blase Road after some of the factories started to close down and in 2000, the old fire station premises were sold and the building demolished, making way for the BP Service Station, as can be seen in the third photo.
The driveway into the fire station in the first photograph and the ‘stop’ street driveway leading from the garage is the same location.