Fire Association President laments understaffing

Ramkissoon said even the Divisional Headquarters at Wrightson Road, Mon Repos, Chaguanas and Scarborough were seriously understaffed and about 400 vacancies needed to be filled.

He said the matter was brought to the attention of the previous administration in 2015 and he was told it was taken to Cabinet, but nothing more was heard about the situation.

A proposal was taken to the government of the time for auxiliary officers to fill the vacancies.

He said, “Officers have been retiring and clear vacancies have not been filled, and coupled with that, recruitment to fire services has not kept pace with the attrition rate.” He said staff who left the service for other reasons and those who left through compulsory retirement had led to the vacancies. Ramkissoon said all fire stations are undermanned.

He concluded, “We will continue to make representations to the government to fill the vacancies adversely affecting the ability of the fire services to meet the mandate of the public...”