FIRE CHIEF SHOULD BE SENT ON VACATION

Trinidad and Tobago Fire Services Association, Second Division, has maintained that it was not responsible for the poor response at the fire at the People’s Mall on Saturday. The association claimed that Chief Fire Officer Alfred, should be sent on accumulative vacation. This was the consensus of the Fire Services Association at its press conference yesterday held at the Communications Workers Union on Henry Street. President Michael McIntyre maintains that the firefighters should be commended on their work despite having a lack of manpower and equipment.

The officers said that they responded on time when they received the despatch call from Central, and the fire spread because of a lack of water. No amount of firefighting can help if you have no water,” he said. “They maintain that the Chief Fire Officer has spent millions of dollars on vehicles knowing for the past three years the saltwater mains were inoperable. The association  said that  the Chief  Fire Officer should  be able to answer, why the Auxiliary Services were not called out to the fire on Saturday, what is the present state of the saltwater mains, and whether there is a fire protection plan. “We also wrote a letter to MP Fitzgerald Hinds, Junior Minister in the Ministry of National Security  who we are still waiting to meet since September 2004,” said McIntyre.