Playing with fire

THE Trinidad and Tobago Fire Service, suffering from a long period of neglect, has deteriorated to the point where it can no longer guarantee the safety of the public. This is the alarming revelation made this week by Mr Jules Moore, secretary of Fire Service Association, who is calling on National Security Minister Howard Chin Lee to investigate the management of the service. Because of the vital function our fire-fighters perform, we expect that the Minister will do much more than that. Indeed, what appears more urgent is the need, based on an expert assessment, to upgrade the service both in equipment and manpower to meet the needs of an expanding society and its developing commercial and industrial sectors.

So far, complaints about the fire service have come largely from members of the public. Most recently this newspaper has received several reports from householders who have had difficulties in getting firemen to douse or contain bush fires which have threatened their homes. But now we have been given a disturbing insight into the inadequate state of the service from the FSA which represents the firemen themselves. For example, we are told that the fire station serving Woodbrook, one of the most populous suburbs of the capital city, has been without a fire-fighting appliance for the last two years! That alone seems outrageous. What seems just as bad is the failure to upgrade the Piarco Fire Station in conjunction with the building of the new airport, in spite of ancient complaints from the fire authorities. According to the FSA, the station's facilities are inadequate to deal with a major fire at the airport. "Will we wait until the disaster in waiting at Piarco International Airport really happens?" Mr Moore asks.

The FSA secretary said the Association and Second Division fire officers wished to distance themselves from any disaster that might occur because of the Fire Service's inability to provide appropriate levels of fire and life safety services. How could such an essential service experience such gross neglect? The unfortunate thing about the Fire Service is that we tend to take it for granted; we have this foolish idea that it will always be there, ready and able to respond to every call, and that its equipment, since it is not used every day, will always be operational and last forever. It is time to rid ourselves of that hazardous myth. According to Mr Moore both the UNC and PNM governments had been informed of the problems affecting the service but no action was ever taken. "It is alarming," he said, "that both administrations have either chosen to do nothing or were apparently impotent to act, while the safety of the country continues under increasing threat."

The Association has asked for an investigation into the management of the service which we expect will also be promptly carried out since it may help not only to explain how matters have reached this sorry state but may reveal other questionable goings on as well. Among the issues the FSA wants investigated are procurement of appliances and equipment since 1994; award of contracts for repairs and the supply of spare parts since 1994; repairs of fire stations since 1994; procurement of uniforms; status of the Benevolent Fund; hiring of auxiliary fire officers on month-to-month contracts and the use of state funds to finance a professional football team, Arima Fire. The Government is prepared to spend vast sums of money on dubious projects such as the shifting of the seat of Parliament and the CEPEP make-work scheme. We expect that it would see the need to upgrade the nation's Fire Service as matter of far greater importance and urgency. Otherwise we may be truly playing with fire.