January 9, 2004
By Tshepiso Mogotsi
THE personnel of Johannesburg's elite Urban Search and Rescue unit are always on duty and all it takes is one phone call to set in motion a mission that might see the squad operating anywhere in the world.
For fire fighter Mokete Malebatso of Johannesburg's Emergency Management Service just such a call came through on Saturday 27 December, while he was relaxing with friends after Christmas. "My cell phone rang. And it was my supervisor saying the Department of Foreign Affairs was putting together a squad to go to Iran and we were being called up."
A day earlier, in the early hours of Friday 26 December, while most people were still asleep, an earthquake rocked the ancient city of Bam in south-eastern Iran. Authorities estimate that 35 000 people died in the disaster and more than three-quarters of the city was destroyed, including the 2 000 year-old mud-brick citadel.
Barely two days after the quake a squad of 45 South Africans flew from the Waterkloof air force base outside Pretoria to Iran to assist in a search and rescue mission. Among them were doctors, security personnel, fire fighters and sniffer dogs, and included in the team were eight members of Johannesburg's Urban Search and Rescue unit.
A grim sight greeted them: devastated people in mourning and in shock, needing food, shelter and medical treatment; buildings ripped out of the ground, shattered walls, people's personal belongings hidden in the debris. Said platoon commander of the Malvern Fire Station, Nikita Gcanga: "Even for us, as emergency personnel, it was a shocking sight."
"Buildings were easily destroyed because they were made from a mud rather than cement," Gcanga said.
"I think it will take a long time for the Iranians to heal," he added.
The South African team set to work with other international rescue teams. The Urban Search and Rescue unit was considered to be one of the most experienced squads, with experience in various disaster management scenarios. Hugh Price-Hughes, special operations commander based at the Doornfontein Fire Station, was appointed as the assistant commander of the international relief mission.
Working conditions on any emergency site are never easy, and Bam was no different. The weather was extremely cold, according to Gcanga, and the team was accommodated, along with aid workers from Norway, China and Portugal, in tents erected on a sports field just outside the city.
After a week of helping to retrieve bodies buried in the rubble and assessing the structural state of the remaining buildings - "very few people were found alive in hollows in the rubble because the buildings had totally collapsed," said fire fighter Alex Malakalaka - the South Africans flew back on Saturday 3 January and returned to their homes around the country.
Johannesburg's city manager, Pascal Moloi, had warm praise for the local unit, saying the team had "put Johannesburg on the world map". "The team has indeed made the city proud and their efforts, I believe, have made all South Africans proud," Moloi said.
The trip to Iran was the third major mission for the Johannesburg Urban Search and Rescue unit. Last May the team assisted in rescue operations in Algeria after an earthquake rocked the northern areas of the country, and in August the squad helped battle a runaway fire in Nelspruit, Mpumalanga.
Joburg's urban search and rescue team
Members of the unit undergo specialist training and can undertake various types of operations, ranging from search and rescue to stabilising buildings. They also operate specialised equipment and are often called in to back up the local emergency services.
The Johannesburg unit included: special operations commander Hugh Price-Hughes; platoon commanders Wintie van Staden, Nikita Gcanga and Edward Kleinhans; and fire fighters Alex Malakalaka, William Sykes, Mokete Malebatso and Frauke Dillschnitter.
Other members of the squad came from as far afield as Cape Town and East London, Tshwane and Ekhuruleni, and KwaZulu-Natal, from the police services, departments of health, various metros, and private emergency operators like Netcare 911 and NGOs like Rescue South Africa.
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