Senior fire officials duck South Mayor

SENIOR fire officials attached to Southern Division fire headquarters in Mon Repos, yesterday ducked San Fernando Mayor Ian Atherly, who visited the station on a fact-finding mission. The mayor wanted answers regarding the firemen’s slow response to Friday night’s fire in the city. The fires destroyed seven businesses in two commercial buildings and displaced more than 30 workers. Yesterday, Atherly and San Fernando West MP Diane Seukeran expressed outrage over the time it took for fire tenders to reach the scene of the fires. Fire appliances from King’s Wharf; Mon Repos; Princes Town and Siparia responded to the blaze, but were unable to extinguish the burning building on High Street and Penitence Street. Yesterday, Atherly made an impromptu visit to Mon Repos fire headquarters. The mayor said he went there to get first-hand knowledge of the problems faced by firefighters. Expressing shock over the absence of senior fire officials, Atherly said it was disrespectful to his office as mayor.

Newsday was told that senior firemen attended a meeting in Port-of-Spain yesterday, but the mayor insisted that his office was totally disrespected. Atherly was so peeved that he expressed intention to write to Minister of National Security, Martin Joseph, on the “circumstances” he faced on his visit to the fire headquarters. Atherly also said he strongly believed the boycott by the seniors was not coincidental. “It was reported that I was going to visit the stations at 10 am this morning (yesterday), so I think that I have been ducked and avoided,” Atherly stated. Upon his visit to fire sub-station at King’s Wharf, Atherly was told by a fireman that the only fire appliance at the station had been taken to another station. Atherly condemned the use of a panel van being used as a mini fire truck. The mayor said, “What we have here is a panel van with shelves to carry the fire hose. A real lorry is supposed to have a wheel at the back so that when the lorry drives, it unreels the hose to its location.”

The station’s “first strike” vehicle, the mayor noted, was a regular 4x2 pick-up with an auxiliary pump. “This is a total embarrassment to the city. Is this a fire station? It is supposed to be.” Atherly wanted to know why, for more than 30 years, the city of San Fernando continues to lose buildings and businesses to fires, when the fire station is just 50 yards away from the sea. Atherly labelled the Mon Repos Fire Station as a graveyard, saying that the equipment, including vehicles in use, were more than 40 years old. In appealing for proper equipment and appliances, including a 5,000-gallon tender and overhead fire fighting vehicles, Atherly said, “When this is done we can sure handle two or more fires at the same night or day, with ease. As it is now, we can only handle one fire at a time. Even so, we are unsure if there would be an adequate water supply,” Atherly said.