Firstcare Wildfire Support

05/10/2026

04/10/2026

TOUGHEST FIREFIGHTER ALIVE SOUTH AFRICA 2026: What an experience... For the fifth year in a row we were involved in this event in various roles. Charlene Theron was once again part of the organising committee. Her main role was to source and organise the over 150 volunteers without who this event can not happen. Then she had to secure sponsors to ensure that the volunteers have food on the day, etc. Thank you for the weeks of hard work, hundreds of phone calls, messages and emails and huge amounts of stress to make this work. Then Christo Theron and Marnus Slabbert for organising and running Stage 1. Ensuring that all competitors are kitted according to international regulations. Huge respect to the competitors for their understanding and cooperation when something was not correct and quickly rectifying it. Anne-lize McNamara and Zascia Brown for running the registration and issuing of timing chips and making sure that the program flows correctly. I am sure Anne-lize was a very strict teacher in a previous life ;). Then some of our other crew that did various tasks throughout the event, helping with set up and pack up afterwards. And in between all this they still competed in the event as well. Our relay team consisted of Jaco Roux (stage 1), Kalvin Sutherland (stage 2), Marnus Slabbert (stage 3 and team captain) and Tenike Blunden (stage 4). We are very proud of this team that did very well (especially considering that 2 of the team has never done anything like this before. For the first time we also competed in the individual competition. 20 year old Tenike Blunden (youngest competitor) competed in the female 18 to 29 year category. And we are extremely proud to say that she won the gold medal. Hard work, determination definitely pays off. Then I also want to thank thank Chief Deon Stoffels and Emile Conrad for the support and faith you put in us to assist with this prestigious event. A very special thanks go out to the legend, the one and only Oom Piet Niemann. Your friendship and guidance, especially for Tenike, is greatly appreciated. Also thank you to our sponsors, Kazin Sales and Rentals for our shirts and caps and Tyremart George for their continued support, water, etc and Monster Energy for the Predator and Burn energy drinks. Looking forward to next year.

21/09/2026

Another succesfull fuel reduction burn executed for a landowner in Wilderness Heights. Huge thank you to the Langvlei Dunes FMU members that assisted. Little by little landowners are reducing the fire risk by irradicating invasive alien vegetation. Southern Cape Fire Protection Association

01/09/2026

30/08/2026

What a weekend. It was a motorsport weekend for our crews. Unit BR1 did fire & rescue duties as part of the Frontier Medix medical team at the Outeniqua 400 Rally Raid. This event concluded with the unfortunate incident of one of the multi million rand vehicles catching fire. Fortunately the driver and navigator escaped the inferno unharmed but the vehicle was destroyed.
Units FC1 & FC2 did fire safety at the George Oval Track for an afternoon and evening of racing. They also managed a serious incident where young Nikky Lotz (one of the youngest oval track racers in SA) collided very hard with the wall. Fortunately Nikky is ok but the same cannot be said for his car. And on the way back to base crews from both events came across a serious vehicle collision in Beach Rd, Pacaltsdorp. Safety and traffic control services were rendered untill handed over to traffic services.

17/08/2026

Today we had the privilege to visit the awesome kids at Wiggles & Giggles Creche. We had awesome fun telling the kids about fire safety and then of course spraying some water. Note: No municipal water was used.

11/08/2026

Sometimes nobody says thank you… because nobody knows they were there.

Not every fire department call makes the news.

Sometimes it's an automatic alarm at 2 a.m. Wires down in the rain. A tree across the road. A gas odor. Traffic control at a crash. Or one of the countless other calls most people never know happened.

But somebody still had to get out of bed.
Somebody still answered the tones, went to the station and responded, never knowing whether they were heading to something minor or someone's worst day.

And when it was over, they simply went home.

Maybe back to bed for a couple hours before work. Maybe back to a cold dinner or plans they had to leave behind.

There was no crowd waiting. No recognition. Most people never even knew they were there.

We notice our volunteer firefighters when something terrible happens. But they're serving their communities on all the ordinary calls, too.

So here's a thank you for those calls...the middle-of-the-night alarms, storm calls, traffic details, standbys and the calls that thankfully turned out to be nothing.

To every volunteer who quietly returned to the station, put the equipment away and went home:
We may not have known you were there. But we're grateful that you were. ❤️

22/07/2026

A huge thank you go out to the Southern Cape Fire Protection Association for their generous donation of an awesome blower. Your continued support to FWS is greatly appreciated. This greatly improves our ability to deal with grass and veldfires, especially in areas where we do not have quick access to a water supply. We will set up a training session soon for our volunteers in the correct use and maintenance of the blower. This blower will form part of our George base assets. Once all volunteers are trained and competent on the operation of the blower we will then attempt to source another blower for our Wilderness Heights Satellite Base as well.