15/09/2026
WHEN EVERY MINUTE MATTERS — PEOPLE MAKE THE DIFFERENCE 🚨
Paarl, 15th September 2026
On 14 September, late evening, the DFW NPC CEO received a distress call from a dedicated Paarl security officer who feared that the life of his client might be in danger.
Family members had become increasingly concerned when their mother was not answering her phone. With the family already dealing with a recent bereavement and considerable emotional stress, the silence was deeply worrying.
The security officer, Mr Izak Faro, responded to the property and immediately realised something was wrong. All the doors were locked, but there was every reason to believe someone was inside.
Together with a family member, he made the decision to gain entry.
After breaking through a security trellis door, they found the lady inside.
It was immediately clear that help was needed.
An ambulance was requested through the security control centre. Unfortunately, during the communications that followed between various third parties, a misunderstanding occurred and information was apparently received that private transport would be arranged.
Mr Faro was unaware of this communication breakdown.
But he knew what he was seeing.
And he was not prepared to simply stand by and wait.
As the delay became increasingly concerning, he instructed his control room to contact the DFW Emergency First Aid Responders for assistance.
🚒 DFW was approximately 22 minutes away.
The responders immediately started making their way to the scene.
Once on site, the DFW team assessed the patient and connected her to a vital-signs monitor.
The readings changed the situation instantly.
This was no longer simply a welfare concern. This was a potentially life-threatening medical emergency requiring urgent advanced medical intervention.
DFW immediately escalated the call and requested professional life-support assistance.
Paramedic David was the first to arrive and calmly joined the response. The previously cancelled ambulance response was reactivated, while another two paramedics subsequently arrived to assist.
What followed was exactly what emergency response should look like:
Security.
Control rooms.
First Aid Responders.
Paramedics.
Ambulance services.
Different organisations.
Different uniforms.
One objective — protect a life.
Working together, the teams provided the patient with critical care and support until the ambulance arrived and she could be transported to hospital.
There will be no photographs of the patient and no identifying information about her or her family published by DFW.
This post is not about publicity.
It is about recognising the people who quietly go the extra mile when somebody needs help.
👏 Thank you, Izak Faro, for trusting your instincts, forcing your way through the barriers when necessary, reporting clearly, guiding our responders to the correct location and, most importantly, refusing to give up when you realised that something was seriously wrong.
👏 Thank you, Kurt, for responding all the way from Franschhoek when the call went out.
👏 Thank you, David, for arriving, remaining calm and acting decisively when advanced medical assistance was urgently needed.
👏 Thank you to the additional paramedics and ambulance personnel who joined the response and worked together at the scene.
👏 And thank you to Anthea and Daan, who received the call, responded as Emergency First Aid Responders, assessed the seriousness of the situation and immediately raised the alarm for additional life saving medical support.
Sometimes emergency response does not happen perfectly.
Communications can cross. Information can be misunderstood. Different control rooms may be working with different pieces of information.
What matters is what people do next.
On 14 September, a security officer refused to walk away.
A control room kept trying.
DFW responders travelled 22 minutes to assist on little information.
Paramedics answered the call.
And several organisations that may carry different names and wear different uniforms simply worked together.
No fanfare.
No cameras.
No speeches.
Just people doing what responders are supposed to do when another human being needs help.
At DFW NPC, we are incredibly proud of the cooperation we experience every day between security teams, emergency responders, paramedics, ambulance personnel and control-room operators throughout our community.
We are proud to call many of them our friends and colleagues.
And this incident once again proves something we believe very strongly:
**Communication saves time.
Cooperation saves lives.
And sometimes one person deciding, “I am not giving up,” changes everything.**
To the lady at the centre of this incident:
We sincerely hope and pray that you make a full recovery. ❤️
DFW NPC FIRE & RESCUE NPC
[email protected]
www.dfwfireandrescue.com
“Communication. Cooperation. Response. When Every Minute Matters.”
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