Development plans announced for Fire Services Division

BETTER days are ahead for the Fire Services Division, in the wake of last week’s devastating fire in downtown Port-of-Spain. New measures are being put in place, aimed at improving efficiency. The fire department will be receiving a variety of new equipment some time this year, or early next year. The announcement was made in a radio interview yesterday by Divisional Fire Officer Kenrick Bethelmy (staff relations and human resources). Six water tenders, two aerial appliances and a $48 million appliance for the airport in Tobago are earmarked for the division. For the fiscal 2005 period, additional requests have been made for more new equipment to replace antiquated ones.

Also, the fire department is in the process of increasing its manpower strength by about 500. The first batch of officers is currently under going a period of training. In addition, arrangements are in place for a  consultancy contract to be awarded at a cost of some $500,000. Bethelmy also disclosed that the Division’s strategic plans are for the building of more stations. “We have about ten stations on the drawing board, to be constructed in various parts of the country, over the next five to seven years,” he said. Bethelmy identified a number of factors he thought were responsible for Saturday’s fire which destroyed the People’s Mall, Pizza Boys, Y de Lima jewelry store, Queensway fabric store and others.