The City of Cape Town’s Fire and Rescue Service has welcomed 35 new junior firefighters at a time when demand for emergency services has reached record levels.

The recruits completed the Fire Cadet Training Programme before successfully applying for vacant positions and will now be deployed to fire stations across the metro.

The appointments come as the service reports a significant increase in its workload over the past seven years. During the 2025/26 financial year, firefighters responded to 30,513 incidents, including fires, motor vehicle accidents, hazardous material incidents and rescue operations.

This is up from 22,497 incidents in the 2018/19 financial year, representing a 36% increase.

Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, JP Smith, says the rising number of emergencies reflects both the City’s growth and increasingly challenging conditions.

“Our city has grown in size, so the increase makes sense, but our emergency services are also facing growing challenges due to changing weather patterns, as we’ve witnessed in recent years.”

Smith says the newly appointed firefighters will strengthen the service as it works to meet growing demand.

“Our new junior firefighters are a welcome addition to the team, and I wish them well, but the annual statistics are a clear sign that they’ll have their work cut out for them.”

The City says it is also investing more than R25 million in the Fire and Rescue Service during the current financial year. The funding will go towards upgrades at Brooklyn and Constantia Fire Stations, specialised vehicles, equipment replacement, minor infrastructure improvements and the initial work on a new fire station in Langa.