A special tribute was paid to Cape Town Firefighters on International Firefighters’ Day for their fearless commitment, sacrifice, courage and dedication to the job.
MEC of local government, environmental affairs and development planning, Anton Bredell, visited the Cape Town Central Fire Station on Wednesday to thank the firefighters for their important service.
“International Firefighters’ Day is an opportunity for society to show our appreciation to these essential front line men and women,” he said.
The Western Cape has 1650 professional firefighters and approximately 450 volunteers serving at 96 fire stations in the province.
Including the parliament fire in Cape Town at the start of the year and wildfires in Kleinmond and the Cape Winelands area, firefighters in the province had a busy fire season, said Bredell.
“More recently, firefighters were part of the various teams from the Western Cape that went to support rescue operations after the devastating floods in KZN,” he said.
He added: “All these operations were characterised by excellent teamwork between different firefighting units and brave and dedicated firefighters who put their own lives on the line so the rest of us can be safe.”
Throughout this past summer, the Western Cape government invested R15 million in aerial and specialised ground support, Bredell said.
Bredell said over the past 10 years, the Western Cape and its disaster management centre have developed an incident command system.
“This means that any firefighting unit knows exactly what is expected of them in any given emergency,” he said.
He added: “There is a clear chain of command and decisive actions can be taken quickly.”