“They’re not heroes, they’re doing their job ... and they’re doing it well,” I’m told, rather sternly, by one of the many people who make sure a firefighter’s job can be done well.
Making firefighters out to be heroes, she explains, not only puts them under pressure, it lets the public off the hook for its part in firefighting — which is prevention. And it’s a major part, given that 95% of fires are caused by humans.
It’s been a fiery festive season in Cape Town. And because it is a parochial sort of place, I spent much of the pre-Christmas days tracking wildfires in Simon’s Town and Glencairn, where friends live. And then on Boxing Day (aka the Day of Goodwill) I spent the early morning hours gawping at two helicopters fighting a fire on Karbonkelberg.
From the secure perspective of the Sentinel Ocean Alliance coffee kiosk on the Chapman’s Peak side of Hout Bay, I watched in awe as the choppers took it in turns to drop into the tightly fitting Hout Bay harbour, fill up their bambi buckets, crest the mountain, unload their buckets and drop back down to the harbour for a refill.
Did I mention the near-gale-force winds? Not steady winds, but pumping winds interspersed with huge gusts. The sort of gusts that could easily blow you into a mountain, if you happened to be in a helicopter carrying a load of water.
I was assured later that lives were not at risk. Safety is always the priority.
No doubt there are pockets of excellence in the government, but it’s depressing, in this election year, to see so little evidence of it
That we so rarely hear of accidents, injuries or worse, demonstrates how well firefighters do their job and how good their training is. It helps that weather predictions have improved to the extent that the fire chief and his team at “incident command” can tell almost to the minute when a fire will turn.
It turns out that what looks to us like Hollywood-style heroism is a minutely choreographed, highly disciplined tactical exercise. It involves considerable amounts of science as well as a large team of committed firefighters — in the air, on the ground and at the command centre — working together to respond instantaneously.
In the Western Cape a number of public and private agencies are involved — South African National Parks, Working on Fire, NCC Environmental Services, CapeNature, Volunteer Wildfire Services (VWS) and what is described as possibly the best-equipped firefighting services in Africa, City of Cape Town and the provincial government’s disaster management department. All play their assigned role in each tightly co-ordinated battle.
During the Simon’s Town/Glencairn conflagration chopper pilots were not only dealing with a blasting southeaster and the unpredictable updrafts and side drafts from the heat of the fire, but also with the poor visibility caused by clouds of smoke.
To the watching public it looked like an impossible task, but in a rather matter-of-fact manner we were told the choppers were being guided to drop their buckets by two spotter planes.
When it’s safe to do so, the ground firefighters move in to do what Jeremy Rose, of VWS, described to Cape Talk presenter John Maytham as some “extreme gardening”. This involves using beaters, rakes and hoes to contain the fire. It’s a crucial role because it’s impossible to saturate the area and so the ground remains intensely hot, with smouldering hotspots ready to reignite.
So none of this is about making heroes out of firefighters; they are just committed, well-trained, well-led South Africans doing an excellent job. And no doubt the emergency dimension brings out the best in them, though a significant part of their work is fire prevention, not firefighting.
But as I watched the firefighting on the Karbonkelberg I wondered why there is almost no evidence of this sort of excellence from our ANC government. South Africa’s firefighters come from all walks of life and, remarkably, the full-timers are not well paid. They are outstanding public servants who remind us of how much excellence there is in South Africa.
No doubt there are pockets of excellence in the government, but it’s depressing, in this election year, to see so little evidence of it.
Can it be that the government and the ANC tend to attract the less competent and the less committed? Or is it that a critical mass of the leadership eventually saps the competence and commitment of the majority of those who do join up with the intention of doing good?
Perhaps it’s time for our government to act more like an emergency service.
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