Fire Service is in shambles

THE EDITOR: Please permit me space in your newspaper to express my opinion. The Fire Service is now 50 years old and is still run by “colonials”. The decision makers in management are frozen in time and make every attempt to keep the service in an archaic and backward state.

There is no fostering of uplifting even for its personnel nor for the service on the whole. One seeking external and relevant further qualifications may be stripped of all allowances as a deterrent. He or she may even be denied time or have that time deducted from his or her holiday allotment even though regulations make allowances for these study time allowances. The job is already stressful because of lack of pertinent, protective equipment and facilities especially where females are concerned. It is a ticking time bomb. Female sometimes have to go to male-only stations where the accommodations are makeshift or deficient. There is a deliberate attempt to keep these facilities lacking to keep down or stop the intake of females. Since they stopped taking in females since 1997 citing reasons concerning lack of facility accommodation. In stations where females are accommodated, I know for a fact that they are cramped into small “holes” and sometimes have to bathe after a fire with water from a cold barrel.

Generally, most of the stations are run-down, dilapidated and dirty. I am not telling untruths, come and see Tunapuna, San Juan, and Belmont Stations that are living proof. The personnel are sometimes commanded to drive vehicles with multiple defects especially brakes defects. When senior officers go abroad to purchase equipment, they look for the cheapest bargains or foreign used rejects. Whether it be equipment or vehicles, these are usually not even suitable to hot climatic conditions like ours. Their performance is, however, short lived and the personnel who have to use them are often used as the fall guys and blamed for the equipment’s nonfunctional state. Internally, enough courses are not made accessible to all involved. Socially, fire officers have to fight for a fair standard of living and work taxi etc on the side to augment their income. One major problem is far accessibility to housing opportunities. Those who hold top positions appear to be inhumane and only serve themselves to act as demi-gods to flout and conveniently misinterpret regulations.

Recently when officers tried to speak out they were all secretly penalised. I want the public and those in authority to be aware of what is going on. As the service is in real shambles and needs serious restructuring and decision makers and administrators who will actually work towards progress and with foresight and vision, not just to lift hand when it comes to dishing out penalties and stopping people’s salaries or vacation leave or intimidation by transfers to Tobago and vice versa, or transferring personnel to remote stations to hush them up. It is a serious case of a fish rotting from the head down. So much so, I would encourage those young and ambitious school leavers and job seekers to look elsewhere. Look for yourselves and see the glaring evidence. This job is unattractive, dull and downright boring and stagnant. I believe that if the social ills of this job are not corrected very soon, firefighters would start to kill their spouses, one another and themselves.

FIRE FIGHTER DEFOSTO
Chaguanas Fire Station