Fire Chief wants Dillon to go

“Our demand is that our good Prime Minister re-examine the appointment of this Minister of National Security,” said Ramkissoon.

“He (Dillon) needs to understand the protective services do not operate like the army where there is total command and no allowance for a representative body.

He came from the bosom of the military, but the fire service, the police and prisons have representative bodies and he has to understand that.” Dillon - who is also the Point Fortin Member of Parliament - drew the ire of the Association after he showed up unannounced at the Point Fortin Fire station last year to speak with officers about the dilapidated state of their station.

“We begged and pleaded with him for a meeting and what he did instead was to show up unannounced and made a statement to the media that government allocated $11 million for the relocation of the building.

“It is as if he is trying to deny workers the right to have representation.

He went to deal with the workers without the representative body and that is totally wrong.

He needs to deal with workers through the representative bodies.” Since Dillon made public the allocation of $11 million for the relocation of the fire station last December, Ramkissoon said that nothing has been done.

The Association, he said, sent numerous letters to the Minister asking for a meeting, but the Minister has not responded to any of them by phone nor by letter. Meanwhile, the state of the 85-year-old fire station continues to deteriorate. Since Saturday, officers have placed their bunk beds in the yard of the station under the cover of a tarpaulin to draw attention to their plight.

A report coming from an inspection of the station by the Point Fortin Borough Corporation that Ramkissoon provided for Newsday found numerous structural defaults in the station. It concluded that “the building is in an advanced state of deterioration and should not be occupied.” A second inspection was performed by the Occupational Safety and Health Authority in January. Ramkissoon said the findings were “very concerning” but the final report has not yet been published.

The Point Fortin Fire station is an over 85 year old wooden structure, and the first responder for any emergencies at major energy companies like Atlantic LNG and Trinmar. “It is only when something major happen they would take us seriously,” said Ramkissoon.

A source at the station said he has worked there for 13 of the 20 years that he has been a fire officer, and the building has been the same ever since.