State-of-the-art equipment for city fire fighters
Over R10-million fire truck purchase to secure more investment in Richards Bay
THE uMhlathuze Municipality has purchased a new truck which will provide city firefighting crews with the capability of extinguish fires and undertaking rescue missions at skyscraper building heights.
The Bronto Skylift has 37-metre long hydraulic platform equipment which can be assembled and operational within 40 seconds.
The turnaround time has been tried and tested at many international avenues.
‘This city is one of the very few in South Africa to own such equipment and it places us on par with Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town,’ said City Mayor Mduduzi Mhlongo.
‘We are quite delighted that at last our city will be well equipped with state-of-the-art firefighting and rescue equipment.
‘It will contribute to the development of our city as huge development proposals had to be turned down in the past because of the lack of such capacity.
‘We could not allow construction of any tall buildings because it was too risky in case emergencies arose.
‘Critical facilities such as the Bay hospital and industries are dependent on the city for emergency rescue and we could have failed them before procuring this machine.
The City invested more than R10-million to import the equipment from Canada and Finland.
The Scania twin cab 6×4 truck was purchased in Canada and the Bronto Skylift was manufactured and assembled in Finland before being shipped to South Africa
‘This monster will be unveiled to the business community during the City of uMhlathuze Economic Development and Transformation Summit on Friday at the Umfolozi Casino Resort,’ said Communications Manager Mdu Ncalane.
