Overview
WHEN faced with an emergency – be it medical or accident – the team Joburg residents turn to is the City’s emergency management services (EMS). Its emergency and fire-fighting staff cope with more than 15 000 call outs every month.
With 28 base stations, Joburg’s EMS is one of the biggest emergency services units in Africa. It covers an area of 1 650km˛ and serves a population of almost 3.5-million.
Central to its operations is the saving of lives and property.
The EMS has five directorates:
Headed up by Dr Audrey Gule, the first black female fire chief the world, the EMS aims to be “a leading, world-class, African emergency management service”. Among her successes at the helm of the organisation is an improvement in emergency response times and an increasing number of women in the service.
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Operations is a core department, dealing with the saving of lives and property once disasters or accidents have happened.
- Disaster management and pier (public information, education and relations) division deals with disaster planning and mitigation. It needs to ensure that every disaster is anticipated and that there are plans in place to deal with any eventuality.
- Proactive services and fire safety focuses on preventing fires.
- Corporate services and academy supports the EMS with a wide range of services, including training, fleet management, human resources, finance and administrative services.
- Management support focuses on communications and marketing, quality assurance and research, transformation and employment equity, and special projects.
What to do in an emergency
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Try to remain calm.
- Identify the emergency: motor accident, building fire, heart attack and so on.
- Contact the EMS command centre on 10177.
- State your name and contact number.
- State your emergency.
- Give the correct address and nearest corner or landmark.
- Remain on the line as long as possible to answer the operator’s questions.
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EMS has its head quarters in the Johannesburg metropolitan police department building, at 195 Main Road, Martindale. The service can be contacted on 011 758 9530. For more information, the EMS’s media liaison officer, Malcolm Midgley, can be contacted on 011 758 5051.
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