Pesticide is what Buffalo City Metro firefighters rely on to start up one fire truck before they can get it to a fire in the city.
The Dispatch is in possession of a video where a firefighter is trying to start the truck but nothing happens.
The firefighter then sprays doom onto a part of the motor and the engine immediately kicks into life.
A source in the fire department said there was something in insecticide sprays which worked better than specialist engine quick-start products.
DA councillor Sue Bentley, who released the video, said a senior BCM official was aware of the problem and had “put in a deviation two weeks ago. But why does such an urgent situation take so long?”
BCM spokesman Sibusiso Cindi did not deny that firefighters have to use insecticide to get the engines running properly.
On Friday, Cindi said the metro had a problem with its fleet and only four fire-fighting vehicles were operational.
One of the fire-fighting vehicles was sent to Port Elizabeth to have an engine problem fixed. But it later developed another problem and it was sent back to Port Elizabeth.
Cindi added there was a new problem which was a fire truck with a leaking water tank. The vehicle is temporarily at the Vincent station waiting to be fixed.
“Fire-fighting Vehicle 16, which is also based in Vincent, is with a mechanic who is fixing it. The vehicle requires new parts. We have since sent an order requesting the new parts from our supply chain department.
“When we have fixed this vehicle, we will send Vehicle 17 to be fixed. We could not send them both to be fixed at the same time as there cannot be a period where we don’t have vehicles at a station,” Cindi said.
According to Cindi, there were “far too few places” in East London that could fix fire-fighting vehicles. He added that sending the vehicles to Port Elizabeth for repairs posed a challenge of delays and higher costs.
“Currently, we have four fire-fighting vehicles that are in use in the BCM. We have Engine One that is based in King William’s Town, Tanker 4 in Mdantsane, Engine 18, in Gompo and Engine 3, that is coming back today. Engine 17 is also still in use even though the water tanker is leaking.
“The fire-fighting departments also has a tender out where we require three new additional fire-fighting vehicles.
“These new vehicles will include one water tanker and three major pumpers (fire trucks),” he added. — Additional reporting by Mike Loewe; siyab@dispatch.co.za/mikel@dispatch.co.za
lThe video will be available on this morning