Green fire trucks hit Cape Town streets as private firefighting service launches for R35 a month
ADT Fidelity’s SecureFire is now operating in Cape Town, raising questions about how private and municipal fire crews will work side by side.
CapeTalk's Lester Kiewit is joined by Fidelity CEO Wahl Bartmann to talk about their SecureFire service.
Listen below:
Have you spotted a green fire engine in Cape Town recently?
It’s not a repaint of the City’s usual red fleet. It belongs to ADT Fidelity’s SecureFire, a new private firefighting service promising speed, precision, and cutting-edge response. But how does it work alongside the City of Cape Town’s fire crews?
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"Definitely, there is a need...our strategy is national and in some areas the fire systems are much better..."
- Wahl Bartmann, CEO - Fidelity
"We've got more than 200 ADT armed response vehicles in the Cape Town area... what we've done is we've trained the officers as the first responders."
- Wahl Bartmann, CEO - Fidelity
Bartmann explains that officers are each equipped with a large fire extinguisher and aim to reach a callout within five to six minutes.
"We've got second responders, which is a small vehicle with firemen that are trained to all the international standards, and then we've got the bigger vehicles."
- Wahl Bartmann, CEO - Fidelity
The service is subscription-based, costing, says Baartmann, about the equivalent of a cappuccino.
"R35 a month and we're providing that service to all of our current customers as well as to any new customer."
- Wahl Bartmann, CEO - Fidelity
Since the service was introduced two years ago, SecureFire officers have dealt with over 850 fires.
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Scroll up to the audio player to listen to the interview.