A building was burnt in the Mathjabeng (Welkom, Virginia, Odendaalsrus, Hennenman, Allanridge, and Ventersburg) municipal area without the municipality’s fire brigade being able to extinguish the fire.
The reason being that there was no water available to the fire department said Susan Taljaard, FF Plus councilor in the municipality.
Mrs. Taljaard was on the scene where the Janru Waste Recyclers building in Welkom burned down. She has previously brought the fire issue to the attention of the municipality.
“Then all the fire engines were out of order because there were no funds to service the vehicles. Now the vehicles are in a working condition, but they do not have water to extinguish the fires.”
“The fire hoses are held together and attached to plastic bags, but the amount of water that presently spills out does not serve any purpose. This is an absurd situation,” she said.
Taljaard has requested several members of the board in the Disaster Management and Public Security, and Transport Divisions of the municipality come to the scene to see the fruits of their work.
“All six towns of Mathjabeng must be served by this fire department, but the firefighters are not even supplied with water, not to mention gas masks and other safety equipment. This is a huge problem that jeopardizes the lives of Mathjabeng’s lives,” said Taljaard.
Read the original article in Afrikaans on Die Vryburger
South Africa Today – South Africa News
