COMMUNITY leaders should not fold their arms and continue as if it is business as usual, but must protect essential services personnel, including firefighters, said Nyanga Community Policing Forum (CPF) chairperson Martin Makhasi, after five Fire and Rescue Services crew were stoned in Crossroads on Monday night.
The firefighters were ambushed when they responded to a reported fire in Sonwabile Street in Crossroads. Fortunately the crew was not injured in the incident, but were shaken.
The affected fire engine will not be available to respond to fires for the foreseeable future, as it has a broken front and back windscreen and damage to the body of the vehicle.
This is not the first time that emergency personnel had been attacked. Paramedics had been attacked in Nyanga and Khayelitsha in recent months with the latest incident reported late last year.
Mayco member for safety, security and social services JP Smith said the call-out appeared to be a hoax as there was no fire when the crew arrived.
The five crew members were then attacked by a group of community members. Smith said the firefighters were “incredibly shocked by this unprovoked and senseless attack”.
They received trauma counselling and indicated that they did not require time off. Smith said if the attacks continued, firefighters would have to use the services of police to attend to emergencies.
A case of malicious damage to city property would be lodged later in the week, he said. Makhasi said the community policing forum had identified that “we need a very strong community engagement” about the issue.
“This will have a negative impact on the community. Residents need to take responsibility and condemn crime,” said Makhasi. Smith said a damage assessment would be undertaken and final costing would be calculated by the end of the week.
“It is of great concern that our firefighters appear to have been led into a trap,” said Smith.
“This callous attack is costing money that the city can ill afford to squander. In addition, the fire engine will be out of commission … leaving one less fire engine to respond to incidents during our busiest time of the year.”