Pretoria - The newly-acquired emergency services fleet by the City of Tshwane’s Emergency Services Department will enhance the metro’s response capabilities of fire-fighting against possible disasters during the festive season and beyond.
Mayor Randall Williams this week unveiled five new Ford Ranger bakkies, saying they will boost the City’s response time to incidents, especially with the upcoming festive season.
The vehicles could be deployed to assist in various rescue situations, including water-related disasters.
They are fitted with special features such as the battery-operated chainsaw, battery-operated carborundum cutter, breathing apparatus escape set, water hydrant key, bolt cutter, halligan forcible entry tool, medical jump bag and personal protective equipment.
According to MMC for Community Safety, Grandi Theunissen, the vehicles can be used to free people from vehicle wrecks and also to save people from rivers.
They have been handed over to five district commanders in the fire and rescue operations division, and they will be based at Bosman, Rosslyn, Centurion, Silverton and Wonderboom fire stations.
Williams said: “A district commander is operationally and functionally responsible for multiple fire stations in a region or geographically designated area of response in Tshwane. Therefore, it is essential that a district commander is equipped with a reliable vehicle to cover the designated area of operation in order to effectively manage an incident.”
He said the department was considered one of the best in the country and the new fleet would enhance efforts to safeguard the City’s citizens and its assets.
“This is part of the programme that we started last year where we received several new vehicles – the bigger ones. This time around, we are getting five vehicles that will be for the unit commanders so that they can control fire events and be able to order the troops around when fire takes place,” he said.
Last year, the metro purchased trucks for fire-fighting work at the cost of about R78 million and they were hailed for being the first ones of their kind in the southern hemisphere.
Pretoria News