AFT PRESS RELEASE 23 March 2005

CITY OF CAPE TOWN RELEASES EMERGENCY SERVICES STATISTICS FOR LAST QUARTER OF 2004

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The City of Cape Town has announced a tremendous increase in fire and emergency calls in the last quarter of 2004.

According to Councillor David Erleigh, the City of Cape Town Mayoral Committee member for Safety and Security, the City’s Emergency Services dealt with a total of 34 372 calls last year and of those 10 924 occurred between October and December.

He said, “The fact that we experienced a third of the calls for the year in the last quarter clearly indicates that Cape Town has a heavy emergency incident season at the end of the year. I believe this was due last year to a dramatic increase in bush and informal settlement fires. This could also be due to builders’ and other holidays, leaving more people at home and hence we have more fires.

“Our Fire Services staff at our 27 fire stations have been quite strained, with an average of 230/240 calls per 24 hour shift. The four helicopters in our aerial firefighting response unit have, however, dramatically reduced the spread of fire and loss of property and lives.”

The City’s Disaster Management Centre also respond to medical calls which comprise about two thirds of calls received by the centre nowadays. These calls come mainly from the lower income areas where residents rely on the City staff to assist with medical incidents, such as heart attacks, asthma attacks, stabbing and gunshot wounds.

Councillor Erleigh added, “If it weren’t for our staff who deliver an equitable service across the metropole, people in distress could wait a long time for assistance. It is therefore not unusual for the sick and injured to be brought to our fire stations to be treated by our committed staff.”

In the quarter under review the potential risk of damage to buildings in the metropole was R267 million. The estimated damage that actually occurred was R30 million, leaving a saving of buildings to the value of approximately R237 million. This was due to quick responses by Fire Service staff as well as Fire Service staff who do inspections and enforce safety codes and by-laws. During the last quarter 6 000 buildings were inspected for fire hazards and 542 notices were served.

Staff also scrutinized 1 797 building plans with a view to recommending fire safety measures.

Fire hydrant staff inspected and maintained 6 977 fire hydrants to ensure that they were ready for use.

In terms of Disaster Management, the City assisted commerce and industry with emergency planning during 22 exercises to deal with, inter alia, bomb scares. In addition, there were ongoing meetings and activities to deal with a variety of risks.

The City also put together emergency plans for 149 mass events in that period.

The City’s 36 disaster management staff were supported by 450 volunteers. Together they rendered more than 6 000 hours’ duty in medical cases, first aid, fire and disaster relief operations.

In that period 179 candidates were trained in emergency control.

That period was also characterized by 65 major incidents, including flooding which affected 2 300 inhabitants of informal areas and 11 people in formal areas. There were also fires which affected 4 000 people in informal areas.

In that time 25 968 meals were supplied to affected people.

Mr Wynand Wessels, the City of Cape Town Director Emergency Services, added, “All credit goes to our staff who work selflessly round the clock to protect and assist others. These are our unsung heroes.

“Last year we had some negative publicity. We do have staff shortages and could always do with more equipment but our statistics show that we are doing the job.”

ENDS

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On behalf of The City of Cape Town

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CAPE TOWN

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