The City of Johannesburg Emergency Management Services (EMS) has spent R24 million on five state of the art vehicles that will respond quickly to fires and building collapses in the city.
The new fleet, which has a satellite dish and comes fully equipped with built in computers linked to the command centre of the city, shows the city's commitment to saving lives and property.
EMS spokesperson Nana Radebe said the vehicles will be allocated to different fire stations according to internal risk analysis studies which will be conducted from time to time.
“The acquiring of EMS fleet is the city’s strategic goal to increase accessibility of the services to the community and ensure prompt response to an emergency," Radebe said.
She said a hazardous chemicals vehicle will be stationed in Modderfontein area because that is where the risk of chemical spillage is high and the level of hazardous incidences is also high.
“The first truck is a Hazmat Unit, it deals with specialised incident of hazardous materials. The second one is a Heavy Rescue Unit which deals with incidents such as the one unfolding in Orlando Power Station, mine rescue and earthquakes.
"A level III incident command unit is to be used for major scenes and incident, such as mini-disasters and incident management.
"The organisation cannot gamble with people’s lives and violate one of our foremost regulations which deal with keeping our commitment and promise within our mandate,” Radebe said
The spokesperson said training has already begun for the personnel and the department is going to recruit more new staff.
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