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27-08-2013: SOD TURNING CEREMONY – PROTEA GLEN FIRE STATION
The City of Joburg’s Emergency Management Services (EMS) has been troubled by the unacceptable delay when responding to incidents at emerging suburbs far from the fire stations around Soweto. Hence, the decision to construct Protea Glen Fire Station after a feasibility study showed that all emergency incidents around that area are covered by Jabulani, Dobsonville and Hodgson Street Fire Stations.
The building of any EMS facility is premise upon a strategic goal to increase on the accessibility of the services to the community. These facilities are an embodiment of the city’s commitment to building safe communities and therefore a safer city. The organisation’s primary responsibility is to ensure we save lives and property hence the plan to build the Protea Glen Fire station is critical.
The recent setup has been a crunch in our response times because of the distance travelled when responding to incidents in and around Protea. The current emergency calls within Protea and surrounding areas is estimated around 9000 calls per annum. The need for a fire station in that area is undisputed as areas such Protea Glen, Tladi, Naledi and Emdeni townships have problems of depending on fire stations far apart from their area.
The new middle class Protea Glen Fire Station building design paints similarities of fire stations in up market areas such as Lonehill and Sandton. The construction of the fire station includes a BESAFE centre that will serve as an educational tool used by Public Education, Information and Relations team to inform community members about EMS safety programmes.
The organisation cannot take the risk of gambling with people’s lives, we therefore promise to adhere to one of our foremost regulations which deal with keeping our commitment within our mandate - which is to save lives and property.
Ends.
Nana Radebe
Media Liaison Officer
Emergency Management Services
City of Johannesburg
e-mail: nanara@joburg.org.za
