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- A Johannesburg man was horrified to see that his local fire station was closed when his luxury vehicles burned down.
- He had to drive to another fire station and escorted firefighters to his door.
- No one was injured, but he is requesting an audit of the City’s fire services, predicting a catastrophe.
A Johannesburg man asked for an audit of the city’s firefighting capacity after waiting in vain for the fire brigade, which he finally had to go looking for, as his Porsche and Land Rover caught fire in his garage in the early hours of Friday.
“What if I had trapped people in my building?” Anand Moodliar asked.
The harrowing experience began when his aide, who lives in Grandma’s apartment above the garage, called to inform him that he could smell something burning at 3:40 a.m.
Moodliar checked the security cameras at his home in Sandringham and saw smoke coming from the direction of the garage.
He ran to investigate and found the garage engulfed in smoke.
He ran to get the fire extinguisher, but the flames burned quickly.
He tried to run a hose under the garage door, but the flames were too big by then and stopped him.
The shell of the Porsche after the fire. (Supplied by Anand Moodliar)
The garage burned and the floor was damaged. (Supplied by Anand Moodliar)
At 03:48, they called emergency services, but he and other family members were concerned when they couldn’t hear the sirens approaching.
In total, they made 10 calls between 03:48 and 04:17, eight to 011 375 5911 and two to 10111, according to his and his daughter’s call logs, Moodliar told News24.
“It was still curfew, and everything was quiet, and we couldn’t hear any sirens or anything,” he said.
Then he remembered that the Grayston Drive fire station is less than 2 km away and was quick to call them.
Closed fire station
“The guard told me it was closed!” said an astonished Moodliar.
He then recalled seeing a fire station in Alexandria when he once brought a staff member home.
He arrived at that fire station at 04:08 and knocked on the door, informing them of his emergency.
Firefighters jumped into action and were ready to go in about six minutes. They had not been informed of the fire, Moodliar said.
They arrived at his house at 04:28 and the fire was contained.
However, Porsche and Land Rover were reduced to shells.
Black marks were visible where the flames had licked the walls.
He was relieved that neither his family nor the staff who lived on the property and his family were injured.
However, he wanted to raise the alarm about the tortuous route he had to take to get help and cautioned that this did not bode well for handling fire emergencies where lives are at stake.
“What if it was the Standard Bank building?” I ask.
“How to draw more attention to this charade?” Moodliar asked.
Investigation started
Synock Matobako, a spokesman for the Johannesburg Emergency Services, told News24 that an investigation will be launched into why a security guard told Moodliar that the fire station was closed. He added that it is not a normal procedure for security personnel to respond to the public.
Matobako said the Sandton fire station was open but had no fire trucks on site.
“It is a well-known fact that the city of Johannesburg does not have enough fire trucks to service the city. We are in the process of acquiring more fire trucks, but this process is taking longer than expected. However, there are vehicles. Specialists that are available to assist in fighting fires, “he said.
The lack of fire trucks shouldn’t have been a problem, as standard procedure for a fire station without fire trucks is to contact the nearest fire station that has vehicles and dispatch them to the scene.
“What should have happened is that the person should have gone to the fire station and then the staff would have contacted Alex [fire station], and Alex will respond, “he said.
While waiting for the next fire station to respond, the crew at the first station will escort the person who reported the fire to the scene and offer assistance while waiting for firefighters.
