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They rose to national prominence when they went through the unenviable yet heroic task of retrieving the bodies of fellow miners in the Buck Mine disaster that claimed 7 lives. They yet again were called to action in unlikely fashion.
Having recently been commissioned, the Vubachikwe Mine Rescue teams saw some of its members who were returning from a Red Cross sanctioned retreat playing heroes without capes yet again.
At the much-publicised Esigodini road traffic accident that unfortunately claimed five lives, the Vubachikwe team was among the first on the scene while coming from their retreat.
This was after a Toyota Corolla was involved in a head on collision with a Mazda Axle on the Bulawayo Beitbridge Highway.
With no help in sight, they got permission to assist and were soon down to work.
“We couldn’t afford to wait,” says Gideon Nyoni, one of the Vubachikwe Mine Rescue team members who assisted in the accident, “we quickly sought clearance to start helping because lives were at stake and people were in distress.”
Gideon remembers a gory sight which will forever stick in his mind.
“There was blood everywhere. Some were in serious distress with some trapped inside one of the vehicles and the response team was not there yet. We had to step up to the plate.”
The team helped take the bodies of those who were dead at the scene and cover them for public decency and in respect of the dead.
“We saw two immediate code blacks (fatalities) and called them and helped the injured. Unfortunately some of the people we helped on site either succumbed to their injuries there or later on in hospital. One of them was bloody and had immensely fractured legs, crying in distress. We had to stabilise the injured person, speaking to them to establish their name as well as comfort them.
“Shock is something difficult to deal with for road traffic victims but we are trained to assist and calm people down. I can safely say our team did that very well,” recalls Gideon.
With swift action, passersby also assisted the Vubachikwe Mine rescuers by way of providing transport to take the injured to help.
Eventually some injured were stabilised and we managed to save the situation.
When all was said and done, the mine rescue team showed that their training is an asset not only to the mining community but to the nation at large.
Online Reporter