SANDF to help fight blaze in Joburg building

The South African Defence Force (SANDF) is to render assistance to extinguish a fire that has been raging in a building in the Johannesburg CBD for the past two days and has claimed the lives of three firefighters.

The SANDF said in a statement on Thursday night that the Chief of the SANDF‚ General Solly Shoke‚ had instructed the Chief of the South African Air Force (CAF)‚ Lieutenant-General Zimpande Msimang‚ to make available fire-fighting trucks and a helicopter to assist the Joburg Emergency Services to extinguish the fire.

“The CAF has since authorised the deployment of five fire-fighting trucks to assist the Joburg Emergency Services with extinguishing the fire that re-ignited on Thursday‚ a South African Air Force (SAAF) Oryx helicopter has been placed on standby for aerial fire-bombing and visual reconnaissance‚” the statement read.