Emergency Services Volunteer

Although I had been involved in the Emergency Services on numerous occasions I was never seriously involved. From 1966 to 1975 I served with the British Army in several theatres including Northern Ireland.

I moved to South Africa in December 1979 and lived in Johannesburg for 5 years. I was a member of the Civil Defence (subsequently know as Civil Protection and then Disaster Management) for 2 years and was Divisional Leader of the Communications Section.

I enquired about joining Civil Defence when I arrived in Cape Town in 1985, but was told that there was no demand at that time.

In 1990 I joined my present company, and in 1997 I was appointed Risk Control Supervisor, a position which has now been upgraded to Risk Control Manager.

During June 1997 I completed a one day Industrial Firefighting Course at the Monterey Training Center in Atlantis. The Instructor, Dean Roberts, related many stories of his 27 years experience in the Fire Department.

A short while after, I also completed the 2 day Fire Marshal course and indicated to Dean that I was interested in further training. He replied that I should enquire about becoming a member of Disaster Management and gave me the names of people to approach in the Blaauwberg Municipality.

I became a member of Disaster Management, and over the next 3 years I completed the Firefighter Induction Course which took 3 months on a part-time basis, the Advanced vehicle Extrication Course (one of only 22 volunteers in South Africa) and Level 3 first aid. This was followed by duties in the Fire Station.

During this time I had also become a founder member of the National Parks Wildfire Team and carried out basic training with them. We were a ‘guinea pig’ team and others were to be formed at a later stage.

Within 3 months of completing the NP course fires broke out in the West Coast area and I was on duty during the 8th and 9th of January. The following weekend the West Coast caught fire yet again and I was on duty the 15th and 16th. This was followed by the fires in Silvermine and I was directly involved from the 18th to the 22nd and completed a total of 72 hours duty in 4 days in Silvermine, Glencairn, and Capri Village, both fighting fires and helping with evacuation.

2001 was highlighted by several fires. These included Blouberg Farm, Milnerton Lagoon and Rietvlei. It all came together at the Helderberg Fire in February.

These were followed by numerous fires and other events over the years as we are also involved with Medical Duties on Cycle Tours, Fun Walks, Motor Races etc.

The last fires we attended were Christmas Eve in Camps Bay and Christmas Day in Melkbos. Both in 2005.