Media Release: Former Garden Route District Municipality Senior Firefighter, Denver Moses, passes away

7 October 2022

Early this week, on 4 October 2022, a former Fire Senior Firefighter of the Garden Route District Municipality (GRDM), Denver Moses, sadly passed away at the age of 49. Denver served the Garden Route district for a period of 14 years until 31 August 2022. Prior to him joining the GRDM firefighting team on 18 August 2008, he was also a firefighter at the City of Cape Town.

Moses was described by members of the GRDM Control Room as tall, friendly and calm with a generous personality – the same every day. “It was an extremely sad day on 22 September 2022, when we visited him. He held our hands and he spoke softly. In his eyes we could see he was fighting a difficult battle,” Tippie Bouwer, Control Room Supervisor said. Another colleague said: “He was taken from us at an unexpected time and he will be dearly missed”.

GRDM Chief Fire Officer, Deon Stoffels, described Moses as respected amongst his fellow firefighters. Young firefighters looked up to him. He also had a passion for training members of the public in fire safety. He was known by many names – “Oom”, “Mosie”, “Mola”, “Mr Moses”. “He earned respect not by demanding it, but just by the way he carried himself,” said Stoffels.

Edwin Lottering a former GRDM Senior Firefighter also said: “I will miss his late-night calls, stories and advice”. Heinrich Leslie, also a former colleague said Denver was a natural leader – passionate about firefighting. “He had the experience to take informed risks.” Leslie further described Denver as someone who didn’t spoon-feed others. “He was to the point and would tell you when you had to take control of a wildfire while he searched by foot for signal to report back to the control room”. Adding to this, he said: “When I think about these incidents, he instilled a mindset in all of us to take charge while staying safe during a wildfire”.

Rest in Peace Denver,
Your service to the Garden Route district will always be remembered and cherished.

“Firefigters never die, they just burn forever in the hearts of the people whose lives they save” – Susan Diane Murphree

A prayer session will be hosted by the Garden Route District Municipality at the municipality’s Council Chambers on Friday, 7 October 2022 at 10h00am. 

Members of the public are invited to view the proceedings through zoom at: https://gardenroute.zoom.us/j/99804471776?pwd=Mk9Nc2RsWDNHNTN4SHZVRUlHMEVLZz09

or through the municipality’s YouTube channel at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8PPLIw2mb4