Fire stations across the Mother City buzzed with excitement on Thursday as eager mense celebrated International Firefighters Day.
A large group of laaities gathered at the Goodwood fire station, standing in line to get a glimpse of the firefighters as they hung from ropes, sprayed water cannons, shared safety tips, did CPR demonstrations and gave tours.
The City of Cape Town hosted the open day at various fire stations including Goodwood, Atlantis, Belhar, Bellville, Epping, Lakeside, Milnerton, Ottery, Mitchells Plain, Roeland Street and Strand.
Two-year-old Izrael Post from Bloubergstrand stole the show at Goodwood when he arrived in his own little fireman gear and was seen enjoying his time with the chuffed firefighters.
His parents explained they heard about the open day on the radio and rushed to get him to Goodwood so he could experience the life of a real firefighter.
Mayco member for Safety and Security, JP Smith, said while the department has a good reputation, there is a common misconception that the service only addresses fires.
“They do a whole lot of rescue services and of the 22 000 calls they did in the last year a sizable chunk of that is medical incidents,” he added.
“About 7 000 of that is vegetation fires, structure fires and informal structures but a big part is rescue work.
“From rescuing the cat out of the tree to the asthma attack or assault cases.
“They even have to draw water from swimming pools when people don’t want it so nothing goes wasted.
“The purpose of an open day like today is to allow people, and especially the children, to come to the fire department and we teach them about things like what to do when a baby is choking [for example].”
Smith said that their main concern are the attacks that firefighters face in some communities, explaining it continues to hamper response times and place officers at risk.
“It is very traumatic for the officers to arrive and be busy putting out a fire and in that high conflict situation and at risk, still being attacked or assaulted by somebody either on a substance or who has an intention for that structure to burn down.”
Between May 1, 2022 and April 28, the service responded to 22 506 calls and while most of these calls were fire-related, 3 613 were motor vehicle accidents, 1 104 incidents of assault and medical emergencies.
The fleet has been bulked up and the service now boasts 72 fire engines, 28 water tankers, 28 skid units, 17 rescue and 10 aerial vehicles.