"Come on Knoxie, not today! - frantic rescuers"

"

Fanie van Rooyen, Beeld

Pretoria – Experienced, exhausted rescue workers from the Tshwane fire brigade cried openly and hugged each other on the banks of the Hennops River in Irene, Centurion, on Monday morning after a colleague died trying to save flood victims.

Henry Knox, 42, was pinned underwater by his kayak after it capsized.

Rescue workers tried for 45 minutes non-stop to revive Knox with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

Knox, who was based at the Wonderboom fire station, was declared dead on arrival at the Unitas hospital after being flown there in a police helicopter.

The pent-up emotion started to show after the rescuers had loaded him onto a stretcher and into a police helicopter.

“It is a very sad day for us,” Johan Pieterse, spokesperson for the Tshwane fire brigade, said on Monday.

“Henry has been a fireman for nearly 24 years. Everyone knew him. He's the first fireman from Pretoria to die while on duty. Many a grown man is in tears today (Monday).”

According to him, Knox was a highly experienced fireman.

Search called off

Knox and his colleagues, as well as several police divers were searching on Monday for seven people who, according to a witness, were swept away by floodwaters after heavy morning rain.

Pieterse said the fire brigade saved another seven people from the floodwaters in Centurion and Irene and at least three vehicles were swept off a bridge.

“A young man in a VW Golf was swept away by the Kaal River, a tributary of the Hennops River and came to a stop near the Glen Road (M18) bridge over the river, south of Irene,” said Pieterse.

The man's car had turned over onto its roof in the water and as a result he had to spend three hours standing on the chassis and holding onto a tree before he could be brought to safety.

"He told us that, while he was stuck, he saw seven people being swept past him by the deluge, which is why we started the search.”

Late on Monday Pieterse said the search for these seven people was called off because no family members had come forward to report missing persons.

Taken away by helicopter

Beeld's reporters moved down along the riverbank, thick with brush, and saw rescue workers trying to resuscitate Knox, who had been pulled from the water onto an island.

After several minutes the firefighters threw a rope from the kayak to the reporters so they could bring their friend to the shore.

Once on the river bank they started mouth-to-mouth resuscitation again as rescue workers repeatedly told their friend: “Komaan, Knoxie! Nie vandag nie ou pêl!" (Come on, Knoxie! Not today old pal!)

Paramedics from Netcare 911 emergency services arrived on the scene and put Knox on a ventilator before he was taken away by police helicopter.

Earlier on Monday two people had to be rescued from an island and a further two from high walls in the Centurion golf estate.

At the bridge over the Hennops River in Nellmapius Road in Irene a woman was saved from the roof of her Mercedes-Benz, which had been swept along by the deluge."
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Come-on-Knoxie-not-today-frantic-friends-20110117