Raising an alarm for fire stations

It took the unfortunate death of a two-year-old in a Morvant fire to signal a problem with at least 11 fire stations in Trinidad.

Fire Association president Leo Ramkissoon told Newsday he couldn’t say whether the child might have been saved if the Morvant Fire Station had had a tender to respond to the call.

Other fire stations operating (or trying to) without fire tenders include Santa Cruz, Woodbrook, Chaguaramas, Belmont, Morvant, Sangre Grande, Rio Claro, Penal and Tunapuna.

Of particular concern are the stations in Santa Cruz and Chaguaramas, where road access challenges are likely to slow down responses from better-equipped stations.

Available vehicles are being organised around geography and the history of calls for help, according to Mr Ramkissoon.

While this is sensible, given the challenges the service is dealing with, it doesn’t explain how 11 out of 25 fire stations in the country, six in the northern division, ended up without the most basic part of their firefighting equipment.

Is a fire station even still a fire station without a tender? To answer that, you’d have to ask the officers who bundled hoses into their personal cars, or those who ran to fight a blaze with a garden hose and power washer.

Among the vehicles that are available, there is the issue of matching the tender to the terrain.

In June 2020, St Ann’s residents watched tenders arrive and leave on two consecutive days after the vehicles could not navigate the grade of the hill. Homeowners were left to fight a bush fire with a bucket brigade and garden hoses.

The Ministry of National Security must explain how this sorry situation came to be.

While some vehicles can be repaired, is the serviceable life of fire tenders being tracked?

Are there repair, maintenance and replacement schedules – for vehicles that often mean the difference between complete property loss and recoverable damage, and, more importantly, between life and death?

It’s unacceptable that almost half of Trinidad’s fire stations cannot respond adequately to an emergency call.

It isn’t just vehicles that are in a worrisome state.

A fire at The Food King in Rio Claro was brought under control by tenders from Mayaro and Princes Town, which used water trucks from the city corporation after finding dry hydrants.

Are hydrants being tested and maintained nationwide?

A prompt schedule for parts acquisition and repair for the fire tenders that can be fixed, and buying new tenders that are appropriate for the terrain they cover, should be a priority for the National Security Minister.

An audit of the capacity of the Fire Service’s equipment and personnel to deliver effective service is crucial and overdue.

There have been fires in the past few weeks which tragically took lives, and although it may not seem that way now, the dry season is not far off.