Gobabis fire-fighters in the firing line

Gobabis fire-fighters in the firing line Some Gobabis residents have complained that the town's fire brigade does not do its job properly.

A resident of the Epako location, who did not want to be named, said she lost almost all her belongings because of the fire brigade's slow response. “They arrived later after we called them but the damage was already done,” she said.

On 28 December 2016 the Gobabis police station caught fire and suffered extensive damage. A police officer who did not want to be identified said if the response had been quicker the damage would have been less.

“Many of the fires are avoidable but our fire brigade is just too slow when it comes to responding to fires,” he said.

According to volunteer fire-fighter Sidonio Alfaiate the community should accept part of the blame.

He says residents don't call the correct emergency number, which delays the response.

Alfaiate denies that they took too long to arrive at the police station. He says the problem there was that there was no water at the station.

“The police station did not have water and you have to have water to connect the water to the fire truck because the fire truck only has 3000 litres of water.”

Alfaiate says fire-fighters face a lot of problems at Gobabis.

“The biggest problem when we go to put out fires during the night is that the people from the community throw stones at us and they challenge us,” he says.

He urges residents to call the fire brigade immediately when there is a fire instead of first trying to put it out themselves.

According to Alfaiate most house fires occur in winter and most of them are started by children.

“After people cook outside they take the fire into the house to keep them warm and when they fall asleep the house starts to burn,” he explains.

Alfaiate says there are plans to build a fire station in the township and it might be open before the winter.

The contact numbers for the Gobabis fire brigade are 062 566 666 and 081 244 4936.

STAFF REPORTER