When we built FindMyHydrant, we hoped it would reach the people who needed it most. We didn’t know how quickly that would happen, or where it would come from first. Then Stephen Potgieter reached out from Mbombela, and everything we’d been working toward started to feel very real.
How It Started
Stephen is the owner and operator of Lowveld Fire Response, a registered private fire first response company based in Mbombela – formerly known as Nelspruit – in Mpumalanga. He came across FindMyHydrant while looking for tools that could support his team in the field, and what followed was a series of emails that made us genuinely proud of what we’ve built.
He told us directly how much the app had helped him. This was something he had been wanting for a long time. For a first responder working in a region where water access during a fire can mean the difference between containment and catastrophe, knowing where the nearest hydrant is – before you’re already on scene – is not a nice-to-have. It’s everything.
Who Stephen Is
Stephen didn’t arrive at fire response by accident. He grew up in the Belfast and Stofberg area, attended school in Middelburg, and joined the Brug B voluntary fire fighter unit while still in standard 7. After school he returned to the family farm, where he also supported neighbouring farmers during fire incidents.
In 1998 he moved to Nelspruit and spent years managing fire and first aid departments for a retail group. Then, in 2023, he witnessed a house fire on a farm as a bystander – and saw firsthand the gap in private fire response services in the region. After conversations with private fire companies in Gauteng and Cape Town, he founded Lowveld Fire Response in 2024.
Since then, Stephen has assisted in extinguishing house fires, vehicle fires and veld fires alongside other fire protection units. His credentials speak to the depth of his commitment: Fire Marshall, Advanced Fire Fighting, Emergency Preparedness Level 1, First Aid Level 2, Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment, and currently working toward Fire Fighter Level 1.
About Lowveld Fire Response
LFR’s mission is straightforward and serious: protection of life, property, and the environment from the effects of fires, medical emergencies, and hazards. They combine manpower with security technology, operate a 24/7 Command Centre, and work alongside local fire departments and network partners to ensure their clients fully comply with South Africa’s fire regulations.
What sets LFR apart is that it was born out of understanding South Africa’s unique fire landscape – not a model imported from elsewhere, but a response shaped by the specific terrain, the specific risks, and the specific communities of Mpumalanga. Owner-managed and community-driven, LFR also invests in outreach, because they believe the people they protect should understand the mission behind the service.
What Stephen Suggested – and Why We’re Listening
Stephen didn’t just use the app. He offered suggestions. As a wildland firefighter, he raised the need to include dams, streams, and water points on farms and small holdings on the map – not just locating hydrants. In urban areas, a hydrant is the obvious water source. In Mpumalanga’s farms and smallholdings, the water that stops a veld fire from spreading might come from a dam or a stream, and right now, that information exists only in a first responder’s head.
It’s exactly the kind of insight we can only get from someone who has stood in a burning field and needed to make a decision in seconds. We’re taking it seriously, and expanding water source mapping for wildland response is now on our roadmap, and we are happy to add this feature to the app, as we want what’s best for first responders.
Our First Partnership
This is FindMyHydrant’s first formal partnership, and we couldn’t be prouder of who it’s with. Not a sponsor, not a donor – a first responder in the field who found the app useful, reached out, and wanted to help make it better.
That is the whole point. A community-powered platform only works if the community it serves is the one shaping it. Stephen and Lowveld Fire Response are doing exactly that.
We’re grateful for the trust, grateful for the feedback, and genuinely excited about what this partnership means for first responders across Mpumalanga – and for the farms, smallholdings, and communities they protect every day.
A Word of Thanks
To Stephen Potgieter and the Lowveld Fire Response team – thank you for reaching out, for using the app in the field, and for caring enough to tell us how to make it better. Knowing that FindMyHydrant is in the hands of people like you, doing the work you do, is exactly why we built it.
If you’re a first responder, fire protection unit, or community organisation and you’d like to work with FindMyHydrant, we’d love to hear from you. The more people who shape this platform, the more useful it becomes for everyone who depends on it.