Johannesburg - Load shedding is bringing along other dangers and consequences to residents.
On Valentine’s Day, a Northwold, Randburg, family lost their house and all their belongings when a fire broke out that night after a candle fell over.
Elvira Dacey said she had given her grandson and his friend, who was sleeping over, a candle to use because the batteries of their torches had run flat, and they wanted to go and fetch a laptop downstairs to finish their studies.
Dacey said her husband Patrick, 67, was upstairs, asleep.
“We have been having a problem in the area with electricity because it doesn’t always go back on after load shedding ends, so we spend extra long hours without power,” she said.
She and the boys were downstairs and Patrick saw a glow under the door. At first he thought the power had come back on, but noticed the glow was getting brighter.
“He opened the bedroom door to find a raging furnace. We all ran outside. We tried different numbers for the fire station, but they weren’t working.
“We started shouting to alert the neighbours, who then called them. It seems they took forever to arrive. When they did, their hoses were not correctly connected, which delayed them. However, we were told by a fire inspector that the fire would have blazed even if they had arrived on time,” she said.
“We were not insured for the contents of the house, so we lost everything,” Dacey said.
Robert Mulaudzi, spokesman for Joburg’s emergency services, said the first call came in at 9.19pm and the first fire vehicle was sent out three minutes later. A second call came in at 9.30pm and a second vehicle was dispatched nine minutes later. A third call came in at 9.32pm and a fire truck went out 20 minutes after. “We are satisfied our response times were reasonable,” he said.
The Star