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Discovery says private firefighting service not meant to replace State services

by Zahid Jadwat

(Discovery)

Johannesburg – Financial services company Discovery has shed light on its latest product Fire Force, saying the service is not meant to replace State firefighting services in Johannesburg. Instead, it is meant to manage the risk for Discovery Insure clients.

Firoze Bhorat, Group Chief Marketing Officer at Discovery, said: “The provision of this kind of service – all EMS types of services – still sits very much and firmly with the state. This is not intended to replace what the state does for its citizens. However, it is a service that we have opened up for Discovery Insure clients because we are trying to manage the risk on the book”.

According to the company, a fire breaks out in Johannesburg every six hours. Bhorat explained, “If you consider the amount of Discovery Insure clients concentrated around the Johannesburg area, there is a considerable amount of our clients here with a fair amount of risk”.

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Spate of fires

Recently, residents in the City’s leafy northern suburbs, such as Hyde Park, sounded the alarm on what they believed to be the work of an arsonist setting homes ablaze. Electric faults have also been blamed.

“It’s in our clients’ interest to make sure that we have a backup system that can augment what the state does in order to protect their properties,” said Bhorat.

The spate of fires prompted the use of helicopters, drones, and increased night patrols in search of an alleged arsonist. He is believed to have started 16 separate fires at multimillion-Rand houses in suburbs that include Hyde Park, Rosebank, Benmore and Craighall Park.

Although Fire Force is meant particularly to serve Discovery Insure clients, Bhorat said that does not mean the Force may respond to other emergency situations.

“This is a service that is primarily intended for benefiting our clients. However, to be pragmatic, to be practical, individually if you are not a Discovery Insure client but you are experiencing a situation, there is no reason for us not to attend to that situation.”

“The process of it all is that as soon as we do get notified of an emergency situation, we do let the State fire service know in addition to responding ourselves,” he said.

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Discovery and shared value partnerships 

Bhorat reiterated that Discovery’s Fire Force is not meant to replace the City of Johannesburg’s existing firefighting service. He said the product was launched as a partnership with Fire Ops SA to ensure community safety.

He said: “Our first goal is to make sure that we service the community and that we limit the impact on loss of property [and] loss of life. That is by far the biggest goal here. Naturally, if you are a Discovery Insure client that does help because you are top of our priority list because we’ve got to look after our members first”.

“This is just an additional component in terms of our shared value insurance because if we look to protect our members’ property, it does result in lower claims [and] less risk for us,” he said.

Bhorat cited a previous partnership with the City of Johannesburg, Pothole Patrol, to address the City’s deteriorating road network.

“We know the state of our roads and the number of claims coming through of people hitting potholes is just extraordinary. The partnership with the City to fill potholes is just another initiative that I can cite as far as shared value is concerned – looking after the community [and] looking after your property so that we lower the risk,” he said.

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