W Cape firefighters on red alert

File photo: Bongiwe Mchunu

File photo: Bongiwe Mchunu

Published Feb 28, 2014

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Cape Town - Cape Town firefighters had to deal with 123 incidents over 24 hours on Thursday, of which 61 were vegetation fires.

They responded to 43 incidents, including six veld fires, last night but during the day on Thursday the figure was even higher, at 80, of which 55 were vegetation fires.

Over a period of 24 hours, the fire brigade had to deal with 123 incidents across the territories of 30 fire stations which meant that, on average, each station had to respond to four incidents.

“This is quite normal and we are dealing with it,” said spokeswoman Liezl Moodie.

“You may have a vegetation fire to which the Atlantis station responds and at the same time, there might be a medical response required in Somerset West and an informal dwelling on fire near Khayelitsha.”

The 43 incidents last night included four informal dwellings on fire, two formal dwellings on fire, one flat on fire, one medical response, 14 trauma responses, one vehicle on fire, one office on fire and one shop on fire.

“The 43 last night is not so bad. We regularly get nights during which we have to respond to up to 70 incidents.”

Moodie said that over weekends at the end of the month, mostly on Friday and Saturday nights but now also on Sundays, trauma and medical callouts could be very high.

Cape Argus

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