Garcia fired up over school site blaze

It took the intervention of the Minister of Education, Anthony Garcia, the Arima MP, and Arima Mayor Lisa Morris-Julien, before a tender could arrive to douse the blaze.

Contacted by residents and the Arima Mayor, Garcia arrived at the scene on Pomegranate Street, Malabar, to find construction material ablaze.

He called the Arima Borough Corporation and the Fire Services for assistance. But the minister got the same response, that the lone tender assigned to Arima was attending to a bush fire. The tender eventually turned up after about an hour and doused the blaze.

Garcia told Sunday Newsday, he intends to raise the issue of the inadequate resources of the Arima Fire Station with the Ministry of National Security.

This has been a source of contention over the last three years since the main fire station on Green Street, in the heart of the borough, was closed and tenders were sent to a facility in Malabar.

Garcia said he was relieved the situation was not very serious, noting the school was due to be completed in time for the September 2017 term.