Joburg EMS not interested in Horizon View fire
Two properties affected by a thatch roof catching fire, but it's "less important" to Joburg EMS.
Mrs Tiffins, who resides in Swan Circle, Horizon View, is disgusted about the way a recent fire in her neighbourhood was handled, she told the Record on Tuesday 26 November.
Tiffins says a fire broke out next door to her property on the early morning of Sunday 24 November and spread to the Tiffins’ property.
Eight of the people who reside on the property were at home and asleep when their thatch roof caught fire. The fire eventually spread to the creeping ivy on the neighbour’s garage, and blown by the wind it started affecting the Tiffins’ property. Windows burst in the building in which her longtime domestic worker lives, the fire crept up the ramp to her door and her curtains caught fire.
Eventually Andrina Tshabalala awoke, and was heroic enough to handle it on her own. Most of the fire on their property was put out before she went into the Tiffins’ home and woke the family.
“That fire could have destroyed this property in no time.
“We are so fortunate to have Andrina in our lives.”
Andrina, whom she describes as a family member, has been working for the Tiffins for around 30 years. This brave woman, in her fifties, had saved her family’s lives as well as their property.
The crisis, however, was the fact that Mrs Tiffin could not persuade Joburg EMS to tend to the disaster.
“I phoned the general number and pleaded for assistance, but according to what I was told over the phone, the thatch roof and subsequent items burning was of lesser importance and there was a larger emergency to tend to,” she alleges.
“It is completely unacceptable. I mean, why do we bother paying rates and taxes?”
The fire allegedly was caused by a generator that stood under the thatch roof. According to Mrs Tiffin an electrical surge had left the entire neighbourhood without power on Saturday night 23 November, and the generator had to be switched on because the husband of the woman next door was critically ill. This has not been confirmed with the family in question yet.
“How can a fire that affects two properties be of lesser importance?
“Including my family, around 10 people’s lives were at stake.”
Mrs Tiffin was unable to place a monetary value on the losses due to the fire, which included damage to the room in which Andrina stayed, a ladder and several sun panels on that side of the property.
Joburg EMS could not be reached for comment yet.
