Fighting fires in Tobago

DR RITA PEMBERTON

Fire was an important feature in Caribbean life during slavery. It was used to burn and clear land to establish or extend a plantation, for creating building sites, and to clear areas for food gardens.

The heavy use of wood in construction made buildings prone to fires, and the storehouses in which cane trash was kept to feed the fires in the factories were major fire hazards.

But there were areas in which provision for fighting fires were made compulsory – the processing operations and the boiling house in which the cane juice was boiled to make the sugar. This was fuelled by open fires.

These open fires had to be maintained to produce the level of heat that was required at the various stages of processing. This was a critical operation, because the quality of the sugar depended on how it was processed, and profits were determined by the quality of the final product.

Fires were also used as a weapon of resistance by enslaved Africans, who were fully aware of the Achilles heels of the planters. Burning of cane fields and “accidents” in the boiling houses were common occurrences on plantations. As a result, firefighting arrangements were considered essential for plantation security.

Each plantation was responsible for providing its firefighting facilities, which was the establishment of a water bucket brigade for use during an emergency. In Tobago, there were provisions for co-operative firefighting mechanisms among plantations. Each plantation owner provided labourers to be used as fire fighters and buckets of water for the firefighting effort.

Since fires on plantations were often considered the result of criminal activity, policemen formed part of the firefighting operations as law enforcers. After Emancipation, given the insecurities of the plantation community, policemen were also given powers of arrest and heavy punishments were inflicted on offenders.

Workers on estates in Tobago were compelled to continue providing their services to help fight fires on plantations in their districts. This service was restricted to plantations because the law did not include provisions for fires on the homes of the free population.

During the 20th century the fire-prevention system morphed into “total” policing. Policemen in the united colony of Trinidad and Tobago were trained for their role as firemen and the Fire Brigade was formally established within the police service.

The box-cart system was used for firefighting. The carts were kept at each station, loaded with hoses and firefighting equipment. They were either pushed or pulled by a vehicle to the site of the fire. Water had to be sourced en route to the fire. There were many occasions when, because of a water shortage, malfunctioning vehicles or equipment, or poor road access, the service could not be discharged, and buildings burnt to the ground.

In 1951, under the leadership of Major Cox and in an effort to improve the efficiency of both operations, the police and fire brigade were made separate services. The latter was renamed the Fire Services of TT. With this development came the modernisation of the fire services department with new firefighting equipment, which included appliances with built-in water storage facilities, fire trucks and ambulances.

The Fire Services in Tobago was established during that period. A fire officer, Owen Als, was sent to Tobago from Trinidad to locate a suitable site for the construction of the Tobago headquarters. His recommendation was accepted, construction began on April 15, 1958, and subsequently the first fire station in Tobago became operational. It was staffed with 18 firemen and two officers and equipped with a firefighting vehicle. The Tobagonian firemen were Bevan Sandy and Joey Wright, who had been employed in Trinidad. The officers were Als and Charlie Rushford.

A fire-station booth was established at Crown Point to service the airport. When flights were due to arrive, an appliance would be dispatched from Scarborough to provide the required services. When emphasis was placed on tourism development, resulting in the potential for increased flight arrivals, the fire service was provided with a permanent location at Crown Point.

The new fire service operation faced two major challenges during the early years of its operation – the two big fires which occurred at the old police station and the old Bishop’s High School at Bacolet. Both were burnt to the ground.

Once the fire services became operational the island's water weakness was exposed. The recently-commissioned waterworks at Mt St George did not provide water to the entire island and there were instances when the fire service was rendered ineffective because of a lack of water. In an attempt to deal with this situation, the law allowed firemen to access water from pools or any private sources to fight fires. But this measure had very limited effect on fires on buildings in some rural areas.

While the new fire station was both necessary and welcome, its operations revealed that not only was it incapacitated by the island’s water problems, but the service was also seriously hampered by the long distance that fire appliances were required to travel to get to some fires in rural areas. There were several unfortunate instances when the fire fighters did not arrive in time to save buildings.

In order to provide better firefighting services across the island, the Roxborough Fire Station was established to serve Tobago East.