The MTO Pine Plantation is set against the beautiful backdrop of mountain and forest and is a terrain of deep ravines and minimum access to water resources.

On 20 October 2010, the Plantation Manager prepared a controlled firebreak in the area to prevent run-away fires. However, the strong North-Westerly winds caused the fire to spread into the plantation and very quickly began to get horribly out of control.

The team desperately tried to contain the fire, without success, and the fire soon raged in the mountain, destroying the plantation as it went. The Eden Fire brigade was summoned for assistance. By this stage, ± 500ha of plantation had burnt down and the fire was still raging relentlessly.

The flames began to spread into the Outeniqua mountain range and this meant that many farms in the path of the fire would be put at risk.

Deputy Fire Chief, Deon van Wyk was heading up the Eden fire fighting team and through radio contact with the pilot of the helicopter he learnt that the fire had jumped the road and that there were now dangerous spot fires on the hill. A spot fire is a small fire caused when debris of another fire creates a new fire. With the erratic wind conditions, each spot fire could become another large fire.

The team set off to curb the fires. Deon knows how to read fires, he understands wind direction and speed and the impact they have on fire, so he made the strategic decision to create the first backburn to secure an escape route for the responders. A backburn destroys the oxygen of a bigger, approaching fire. But each backburn has to be carefully planned, timed and executed.

All the while, Deon liaised with the helicopter and they agreed on a water dump strategy. The pilot of the helicopter informed him that the fire to the left of the area was now proceeding over the mountain and was approaching from behind with a northerly wind back to it.

A dense, heavy smoke screen was hanging over the scene. It was then that things began to take a frightening turn for the worse: the fire fighting hand crew had parked their vehicle across the road and now the fire had reached the side of the road and was blocking the way of the truck and water tanker. Both vehicles were now trapped.
The fire fighter with the truck could not see to drive the vehicle through. A thick blanket of smoke smothered his vision and his airways. He recalls “It was the most frightening thing. I could smell the rubber on the tyres of the vehicle starting to melt from the closeness of the fire and I was vomiting smoke.”

Once more, Deon relied on his strategic judgment and taking two gas burners he ran and created a second firebreak, leaving the truck in a safe area. Afterwards, in the burnt and devastated terrain, a perfect circle of grass remained where the vehicle had stood, safely buffered by Deon’s quick thinking.

The fire continued to rage up the mountain with flames as high as 30 meters. By now, the purpose of the operation had moved from being about saving the property to an exercise in pure lifesaving.

While the hand crew team was gathered together a fire storm was approaching on a slope of 70 degrees. The only way to save them was to split the fire. Deon recalls that, for the first time, he started to doubt that they could beat the fire. Would they ever get out alive? See their families again? He could no longer hear the cries of the crew.

He started to prepare a third fire break behind the tanker up to the hand crew and then saw that the fire had split and moved towards one of the trucks. He turned around and with the help of two crew members, prepared a further fire break towards the neck of the mountain, and still another as the flames broke up and began rapidly moving towards them.

Deon got into the truck with the crew and contacted the pilot to determine the distance from the hand crew and vehicles and made the decision simply to speed out through the fire. Flames engulfed the vehicle on both sides of the narrow track. Visibility due to smoke was negligible, they could hardly breathe, they simply prayed and drove…

With the smoke still thick and in unbearable heat, the team emerged through the inferno to safety. The fire was still raging and the team continued to work all night on the fire line, making fire breaks and doing all they could to stop further devastation.

No losses of human lives or vehicles were reported and only two crew members sustained injuries due to smoke inhalation.

On 23rd December 2010 Hennie and the team of Station 23 received an emergency call. Two teenage boys, who at first were assumed missing, were now presumed to be trapped on a river by a waterfall. The team had to get to the river….and quickly. Working with members of Metro, the team immediately put a rescue mission into action.After a family tour of the local river, flowing fast after days of rain, two fifteen year old boys decided to canoe at the Kaaimans River Crossing. It soon became clear that the waterfall was not the calm scene they remembered.

Under normal conditions navigating the river would be easy. But after so much heavy rain, the sluice upstream opened and a raging torrent swept straight for the waterfall. The boys got to the rocks with a wave of water breaking across the entire width of the channel. For a while, they watched the awesome display of water in full force. But when they went back to the canoe, the water had pulled it into the river.

They immediately tried to recover the canoe, but instead the water pulled them into a swirling current in the rock pool. They were knocked against rocks, swept into a circle and spat out on the other side of the waterfall.

Again and again, they drastically tried to pull themselves out and get into the canoe but the fierce current did not relent. There was a whirlpool right behind them, a dangerous vacuum, and the forceful waters were icy cold. They were in serious trouble here.

Donald was the first to arrive at the river crossing. Trained as a rescue swimmer, he made his way to the waterfall. When his partners Hennie and crewman Alto arrived, they rushed to the low water bridge and launched Rescue Runner, a custom built rescue jet ski. Hennie recalls “We couldn’t see a thing. It was just one thick vapour.”

Faintly, Hennie managed to spot the boys. In the meantime, Deputy Station Commander Clifford and the rest of the team liaised with the parents of the boys.

Behind the Rescue Runner, they strapped another innovative rescue boat. A 1.5m inflatable raft equipped with a stretcher called the Croc. “I’ve never been exposed to something like it,” Clifford describes. “We got into the kloof and it was like a witch’s pot. That river was really vicious.”

For two and a half hours, the rescue team fought the elements with intense concentration. Donald, the only trained rescue swimmer on the team is not qualified as a swift water rescue swimmer, but he battled on relentlessly, relying on his training and instinct.

Hennie remembers the fight. “There was no way to communicate directly. We struggled to see each other, and if we faced the waterfall we couldn’t breathe properly. It was like someone had a fire hose trained on us. We had to stand with our backs to the waterfall and lean back into the wind, the rocks were dangerously slippery too.”

Initially Donald was tasked with paddling the Croc with a rope across to the boys. Due to the force of the waterfall and the small size of the receiving gorge, a circular current was constantly swirling around the rock faces. The force of the current was so strong that Donald found it difficult to paddle across without being pounded against the rocks.

Twice the team had to pull him back and away from the gorge walls until Donald found a line to paddle through the current, across to the other side of the pool. Two terrified, wet and freezing boys were very happy to see him. The biggest cause for concern was that both boys were suffering from hypothermia. Their body temperatures had dropped to 34,9°C and 33,6°C. The team knew that any temperature lower than 32°C is critical.

The team used a second rope, secured to the other end of the Croc, to retract and stabilise the Croc. Jaco was the next team member to paddle across the current. Once on the other side, he and Donald secured one of the boys onto the croc. The remaining team at the mouth of the kloof were signalled by two-way radio, and began retracting the Croc.

Clifford and the remaining team used all their physical strength to pull Jaco and the boy back with the Croc, with Jaco focusing on keeping it stable with the boy facing up – so he could breathe. All the while, Donald paid out the rope from his side. Once Jaco and the first boy were safely offloaded, the boy was transferred to the Rescue Runner, which took him to the ambulance and his waiting family.

The second crewman, Hugh, paddled the Croc back across to Donald. They secured the second boy on the Croc. Hugh carefully, painstakingly repeated the exercise.

The first man in the water was the last one out, the croc was pulled back by Donald, who then climbed on-board himself and was retracted from the kloof by his crew.

This amazing rescue operation is the picture of teamwork. What the rescue team lacked in formal training they made up for in commitment and energy, whilst working closely with the supporting Metro rescue and ambulance services.

Against so many odds, the team delivered an incredibly successful outcome and their strength and bravery is applauded.

Understanding the make-up of the team really puts this story in perspective: All people who work for the NSRI are volunteers. They spend much time training and qualifying to be able to carry out rescues but do also have unrelated full-time jobs. In this case, Hennie is a farmer, Hugh has his own plumbing business, Clifford has a pool business, Donald is in banking, Jaco is a fixed-wing pilot and Alto has a kitchen cabinet business. NSRI people do this volunteer work because they want to help and make a difference, which is exactly what Hennie and his team were committed to do with the rescue of the two boys.

9 December, 2010. After working a nightshift, Learner Fire Fighter Eugene Shimmy Sefatsa was on his way home with a friend. Driving through early morning traffic, they saw smoke coming from a building in a residential area. Several flats on the second floor of a block of flats were on fire. On closer inspection, Shimmy saw smoke and flames billowing from the windows. Thus far, the only personnel on scene were himself and a two man ambulance crew.

Time was of the essence, and despite little experience and training Shimmy took initiative. He called for back-up from the Station, where he knew only five men were on duty. Next he called the Regional Commander asking him to send more crews.

With help on the way the problem was far from over. The fire continued to rapidly burn and grow so Shimmy found the fire hydrant and cleared access to it so that the crew could work quickly. As he finished the first crew arrived.

Some people had managed to escape the fire and were sitting outside, catching their breaths. As the crew got to work trying to control the fire, Shimmy checked on them. This was when Shimmy learned that there were still people trapped inside the burning building!

Shimmy carefully assessed the situation: it seemed that the fire had started in a flat on the second floor. He scanned this area carefully looking for signs of movement.

An elderly man who lived on this floor was trapped in his flat by smoke and flames filling his doorway as the roof had caved in at his front door, preventing him from getting out. Escaping through the window was not an option for him either, as all windows was securely fitted with burglar bars.

Shimmy saw the man and weighed up his options. Thinking through the situation faced, he asked his friend to help him. They fetched the extension ladder from the fire truck, carried it to the flats and positioned it at the man’s windows. Shimmy then hurried back to the fire truck and fetched the rescue cutter, a special tool that forms part of the jaws-of-life.
The scene commander was aware of Shimmy’s actions but had to focus on fighting the fire. Three of the crew were deployed inside the building while two people fought the fire from the outside. It was up to Shimmy and his partner to save the old man’s life.

Shimmy acted very quickly, he took his shoe shine rag, wet it and covered his nose and mouth against the smoke. With the rescue cutter in hand he climbed to the second story flat, surrounded by smoke and singed by the heat of the flames. He swiftly cut through the bars and climbed inside the old man’s apartment.

First he calmed the old man and assured him that he was going to get out. This was important since panic can make a rescue very difficult.

He helped the old man towards the window but just as he was about to climb out, the man began to insist that he needed his pack of cigarettes. Shimmy smartly saw this as a chance to keep the old man calm and moving so agreed to go back into the flat and grab the cigarettes. Once the man was safely on the ground and being treated by the medical crew, Shimmy went to help the next trapped resident.

While more back-up arrived to help to fight the flames, a woman on the ground floor was shouting for help. Realising that the safest evacuation route for her would be through the window he once again used the rescue cutter to open the burglar bars and helped her to safety.

With everyone safely out of the building, Shimmy then went to assist the fire crews with the fire that was still raging, helping with the breathing apparatus sets and running hoses until the fire was brought under control.

On Wednesday 27 October, Netcare 911 Advanced Life Support Paramedic Jack Haskins Junior was dispatched to an emergency call in the beautiful, mountainous area of Glenwood, Pietermaritzburg. The call was logged as a bites /stings case, which could mean almost anything, so Jack was unsure of what exactly to expect.

On arrival, Jack saw that an ambulance and another response vehicle already arrived on the scene. But with the swarm hanging around the house, the crew were reluctant to even leave their vehicles.

From his vehicle, Jack could see a man standing at a window calling for help: he shouted that the house had already been invaded by the swarm, and two little children that were still in the house had been badly stung.

Jack did not hesitate for a moment. Despite knowing the dangers, he left his response vehicle and ran to the house through the swarm, which stung him several times.

The man directed him towards the back door where the family was waiting. He saw the children lying on the couch, badly stung, red and swollen. Jack got the ambulance to back up as close as possible to the doorway of the house.

He wrapped both children in towels to prevent any further stings and ran out with them, one at a time, to the waiting ambulance. The mother, who had also succumbed to being badly stung, followed and climbed into the ambulance with the children.

The ambulance drove away from the scene and stopped approximately one kilometre away where the children and young mother were treated and stabilised.

The babies were transported to hospital for further medical intervention. Afterwards, the mother tried to describe the situation – but found there were no words for the terror and fear she had felt. She had only praise for the bravery Jack showed in saving her children, and for her Jack was a guardian she will never be able to thank enough and whose actions will stay with her forever.

Frantic calls came through to Ekurhuleni Emergency Management Services reporting a fire that was taking hold at the Peter Wessel Old Age Home in Dunnotter, Nigel. Teams were immediately dispatched.

Even from over a kilometer away, the response teams could see the brightness of the fire burning in the night sky. As they came closer, the fiery glow of the night sky was filled with the sounds of people screaming and those calling out for loved ones whilst emergency personnel set-out to fight the fire.

The fire started in the frail care unit in the corner of the building but instantly spread in two different directions. Both the front of the building and deeper into the foyer and passages were in flames with the smoke and heat creating one massive inferno.

With two charged fire hoses, the first team of three fire fighters went into the building sweeping in circles to fight the fire, overhead flames and the heat moving towards them from the ceilings that were already engulfed. In a situation like this, fire can come at you from all directions instantaneously. The space is three dimensional – and the fire snakes along walls, floors and ceilings. The team had to move deeper into the pit of fire, breaking down doors, moving in open spaces, shouting and looking for anybody. With the limited visibility caused by smoke, it could be hard to spot casualties who could be lying on the floors, on beds or hunched over somewhere.

One of the team members recalls, “The smoke and heat was completely overwhelming. We could hardly see and tried to follow the sounds of people. We heard a faint cry not far from us and an elderly lady was in a crawling position close to the door. It was difficult, but we managed to lift her out to safety.”

As the back-up crews arrived, the building was completely engulfed by flames. Inside, visibility was best described as pitch black with no electricity to shed light. Patients were being passed through windows while other firefighters broke down doors to get through, carrying patients on their shoulders or pulling them out on mattresses. Most of the patients were bedridden and some of them were mentally handicapped and of course all were elderly and terrified, so there were a lot of challenges facing the rescuers.

In most cases, those in a fire can run out to safety but sick and elderly people unfortunately cannot run or move from danger as quickly.

Everybody on the scene worked together and did the best they could to save as many people as possible. Paramedics were running as deep into the burning building as the smoke and fire allowed to free residents. As one paramedic put it, “sometimes we just have to make split second decisions based on gut instinct and experience.”

Another paramedic explains: “At one point I found a man who probably weighed 200 kg. I couldn’t carry him, so I took a mattress and lowered the man on to it. I then dragged him, on the mattress, to safety.”

Many patients were lying outside, being attended to by medical personnel. All the while, the fire raged on throughout the many different sections of the building.

Many more patients were still trapped inside the building. Firefighters were breaking windows, cutting burglar bars and climbing through to go and rescue people.

With all the back and forth – the breathing apparatus sets were now empty. Normally an apparatus lasts for the duration of a structural fire but due to all the running and physical demands, the fire fighters used up their BA sets much quicker.

There was simply no time to wait for refilled breathing apparatus to arrive, so the firefighters took turns to go in and attack the fire, with colleagues crawling in to take over from the first one who would crawl out for fresh air.

The fire was classified as a “Hot Fire” because the building, being old, had solid wood rafters and ceiling material that burnt hot, and whole the oxygen pipes running throughout the building meant that the fire spread rapidly. And all the while there was the threat of explosion due to the LPG gas. There was no doubt that this was a disaster on an epic scale.

Nigel Fire Station Commander recalls: “We got to a room and were scanning it with torches. We saw movement… and saw 3 patients in the room, 2 in wheelchairs and one in a bed. They were alive but didn’t utter a sound, it must have been shock as they just sat there. With the help of other fire fighters we carried them out.”

Paramedics were treating people for burns and smoke inhalation in a triage area at the back of the building, and three Priority One patients suffering from severe burn wounds were flown by air ambulance to hospitals. Many more were transported by ambulances to local hospitals as quickly as possible. Medical fluids, resuscitation drugs and other items were all used up because of the high number of patients they had to tend to.

“I’m fit, young and strong but I was exhausted. The combination of the heat, the thick smoke, low oxygen levels and physical demands of running in, carrying and or dragging people out was just so tiring,” says one fire fighter.

The senior scene commander sums up the event: “I’ve been in the industry for 26 years and this was the worst and biggest incidents I have experienced, where so many lives were at stake. Everybody in the team are heroes. They all reacted on instinct and did what they had to do.”

In a mighty display of team effort, the different rescue teams came together as one and worked through the night.

Personnel worked according to protocol, but because of the nature of the incident they had to work outside of these parameters too. For example, there was no time to package the patients nicely before removal, it was a matter of ‘scoop and go’. The risks of the fire itself, possible explosion and the building collapsing were just too great to waste even seconds.

One of the things that stood out the most that night was the extraordinary commitment to help shown by all, the members of the community, the Police, passers-by and church people.

As a fire fighter puts it:- “Nobody stood back, everybody did what they could. Security helped to cut open burglar bars while members of the church helped transport some of the old people who weren’t badly injured. It was incredible.”

Against so many odds the team did everything humanly possible that night, incredibly saving some 99 patients from the fire. Sadly 18 patients perished, including those that passed on afterwards in hospital, and all rescue personnel express their deepest sympathies to those who lost loved ones on that dreadful night.

Rescue Workers:-

Alberton Fire Station:
Geôrgh Visser, Louiwegian Mantion, Nevhutshena Tshifhiwa, Pieter Visser, Sibusiswe Gule,

Benoni Fire Station:
Adam Vilakazi, Buks Bothma, Kahlolo Ndebele, Modiegi Vilakazi, Thabo Mbengwane, Thabo Tshehla,

Boksburg Fire Station:
Benjamin Zikalala, the late Bheki Mkwanazi, Irwin Rahn, Jane Seema, Lebohang Kumako, Lesiba Maake, Peggy Tselana,

Duduza Fire Station:
Amos Maselela, Charles Nkambule, Constance Mcira, Lucky Ngwenya, Thomas Zulu,

Edenvale Fire Station:
Milan Sosic,

Emergency Medical Services:
David van Zyl, Derrol Vilakazi, Simon Mashia,

ER24:
Alastair Lithgow, Antoinette van der Walt, Eutimia Garces, Francois Lombard, Shane Brazier, Tobie Bosman, Vanessa Jackson, Werner Vermaak, Wilma van Wyk,

CODES Section:
Hennie Croucamp, Petrus Brits,

Gauteng Provincial Government Emergency Medical Services:
Helgaard Honniball, Sobantu Galela,

Life Healthcare:
Jeffrey Kidd, Johan Droskie,

Maponya Rescue911:
Andries Sethaiso, Bhekisisa Mngomezulu, Sephumelele Chamene,

Media:
Roggers Mamaila,

Netcare911:
Bradley Osner, Deon Swart, Isaac Sehunoe, Kayleigh Lachenicht, Kobus Steyn, Ronnie de Beer, Sonia Olivier,

Nigel Fire Station:
Anne-Lee Jansen van Vuuren, Dean Francis, Jan Jood, Lillian Mahlangu, Maswasivona Baloyi, Motseki Mphuti, Phodiso Tshabalala, Thembelihle Sibeko, Thulile Mvelase, Tshifhiwa Siqubu,

Operations:
Leon du Preez,

Palm Ridge Fire Station:
Louis Bothma, Thapelo Qametsi,

Primrose Fire Station:
Humeleng Selota, Otsile Lesenya, Phoke Rampora,

Selection Park Fire Station:
Bhekokwakhe Khumalo, Filippus Roux, Gugu Ngobese, Jacobus Vermaak, Lucky Motshoeneng, Miyelane Msungwa, Sandile Lushaba, Thandeka Tsie,

Training:
John Leotlela