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A man died when his home caught fire at Heideveld on the Cape Flats on Monday, the city’s fire department said.

Cape Town Fire department shift supervisor Paul Josephs said they received a call at 02:17 about a house that was on fire.

“On arrival, firefighters found a man had fatally burnt.”

Josephs said it was not yet known what had caused the fire.

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Nine workers from a shopping centre in Hillcrest have been treated for possible smoke inhalation after a small fire broke out inside a deli this morning.

ER24 paramedics rushed to the scene and were directed to the location of where the fire had broken out. The local Fire Department was on scene and had already extinguished the flames and was assessing the damage.

Nine workers from the shop were escorted out side to the waiting ambulances to be treated. One patient was treated for minor burns to his arm, while the remaining eight patients were treated for smoke inhalation. All patients were in a stable condition and were transported by ER24 to Life Entabeni Hospital for further medical care.

It is unclear what caused the fire but no serious damage was done.

Derrick Banks
ER24

When ER24 paramedics arrived at the scene the worker was still entrapped in the ground and was buried in soil up to his shoulders. Metro rescue promptly dispatched their Rescue seven vehicle which is their specialized structural collapse unit.ER24 also dispatched the ER24 Discovery Medicopter to the scene.

Paramedics and rescue workers then carefully extracted the worker as to not cause any further engulfment from the side walls of the trench. The rescue took just over an hour to complete and crowds applauded the efforts of the Emergency Medical personnel as the worker was hoisted from the trench.

Once the worker was placed on the parking lot of the hospital, paramedics where able to asses the patient completely. The worker had allegedly sustained significant injuries to his lower extremities and was taken to hospital per ambulance.

Andre Visser

ER24

A British tourist’s last night in Cape Town ended in tragedy when he fell to his death walking up the stairs to his lodgings.

Neil Anthony Woodcock and friends had returned from a celebration at a nearby restaurant to a double-storey Gordon’s Bay house at about 11pm on Tuesday when he apparently lost his balance and fell 3.5 metres.

“Our advanced life support paramedics tried for nearly an hour to resuscitate him, but unfortunately he died on the scene due to serious head injuries,” Netcare 911 spokeswoman Lauren Copley said.

She said the cause of death was unclear. All they knew was that he had walked up the stairs one moment, and the next, he fell and died.

Woodcock was due to return to Britain yesterday.

Police spokesman Gert van der Merwe said his friends reported he had been drinking, but didn’t say how much, adding: “They also said that he had had heart problems.”

In a separate incident, a 70-year-old man died from a suspected heart attack during a workout at a popular Durbanville gym.

Johannes Bezuidenhout was running on the treadmill around 7.30am when he passed out and fell to the ground. He later died. Copley said paramedics had spent more than an hour attempting to resuscitate him.

Gym manager Os van Heerden said Bezuidenhout had been a regular at the facility. The incident, which took place just after 7.30am, had forced management to close the gym.

He said that, when Bezuidenhout collapsed, staff ran to his assistance.

“We did the best we could to help him until the paramedics arrived, but?”

Professor Mike Lambert from the Sports Science Institute said it was highly likely Bezuidenhout had had an underlying medical condition.

Although there are added risks for elderly people who exercise, the advantages of exercising far outweigh the negatives, he said.

However, someone who never exercised needed to consult a doctor before engaging in strenuous exercise.

“Walking and stretching is the best combination. These people need to be checked (by a doctor) and start exercising gradually. Don’t overdo it,” Lambert said.

* This article by Michelle Pietersen was originally published on page 3 of The Cape Times on September 02, 2010

Alarms were sound again this morning when a second call out to Epping industria was received. EMS workers were surprised to hear that they would be responding to the same address where yesterday’s drama took place and again for a gas leak.

A number of workers started showing symptoms of eye irritation, headache, nausea and vomiting after noticing a smell of an unknown gas in the building. Panic erupted and emergency services were activated immediately to attend to the situation. The local fire department was called first and expecting the worst after yesterday, activated all other emergency systems.

When ER24 paramedics arrived at the scene they could see that it was an isolated case and not a mass evacuation like the previous day. After investigating the situation the paramedics found that the panic had started at a nearby packing facility and storeroom. A total of six workers were treated at the scene and taken to a nearby private hospital for gas inhalation.

With this being the second day of a unknown gas filling the building’s and sky at Epping industria, ER24 and the rest of the EMS community are ready for any possible repeat of yesterday and today’s incidents.

Andre Visser
ER24

An elderly man has being injured after falling into an electric fence inside the property of the old age home where he is staying this afternoon in Pietermaritzburg.

ER24 paramedics and the provincial ambulance service arrived on the scene and found the man lying near the fence in a very confused stated. He had also suffered multiple lacerations and abrasions. Advanced Life Support intervention was performed on the patient. There was no obvious burn marks on the patient that paramedics could see. The patient was placed on a specialised board before being transported to Northdale Hospital in a serious but stable condition.

It is believed that the elderly man was doing his normal afternoon walk in the garden and was picking up avocados from the ground when he slipped and rolled down the embankment into the electric fence. While tumbling down the man sustained lacerations and abrasions to his body.

Derrick Banks
ER24

Emergency Medical services had their hands full today when an unprecedented 150 plus patients had to be taken to various hospitals.

ER24’s national control room in Johannesburg received a call at 12:34 that a major gas leak had occurred at a factory in Epping industria. Moments later when the paramedics arrived at the scene they were shocked at the amount people still streaming out of the surrounding buildings. The paramedics noticed a faint dull smelling gas in the air surrounding the area. With teams allocated to triage the vast amount of patients to various hospitals additional resources were dispatched to the incident. A total of five ER24 ambulances were called in to assist with the situation, bringing the total of on-scene vehicles to eight. Emergency services worked desperately to remove all of the people out of the gas cloud and decided to relocate the injured to the nearby Epping fire station from where they will be taken to hospital.

Although most of the patients had minor gas inhalation symptoms and were coughing, according to paramedics on the scene a number of patients did lose consciousness and needed specialized medical treatment. Hazmat authorities took charge of the scene and will be investigating the origins and specifications of the gas in question.

Andre Visser

ER24

A Pietermaritzburg man is in a serious but stable condition in the Edendale Hospital after falling approximately three metres when a staircase gave way in the Lay Centre in Edendale this morning.

Details of the structural collapse remain vague. The man alleges that he had been walking up the concrete staircase in the building from the ground to the first floor. The floor appears to have given way and the man plunged onto the level below.

He sustained serious lower limb and facial trauma, as well as suspected spinal injuries. He was transported by ambulance to the Edendale Hospital for further medical attention.

An industrial accident in the Cleveland area has left a worker fighting for his life in a Johannesburg hospital. The worker was a contractor that was working on a factory roof some 30 meters above ground level. It appears that he stepped onto a weak part of the roof and then plunged 30 meters to the ground.

Advanced life support paramedics Craig Pyott and his team arrived at the factory to find the worker lying prone on the factory floor in a critical condition. Medics worked fervently to stabilise the patients and after skilfully immobilising him on a trauma board, they transported him to the Netcare Union hospital were a trauma team was standing by to take over the medical management of the critically wounded man.

A visitor to the Arrive Alive website sent a few pics that illustrates most effectively what can happen with firearm accidents. It also emphasizes the message to never consume alcohol when handling firearms!

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