Camille Clarke

Pres­i­dent of the Fire Ser­vice As­so­ci­a­tion Leo Ramkissoon says fire­fight­ers are threat­en­ing to take ac­tion re­gard­ing the non-pro­vi­sion of gov­ern­ment hous­ing to mem­bers.

The as­so­ci­a­tion is call­ing on Min­is­ter of Hous­ing Roodal Mooni­lal or the Prime Min­ster Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to in­ter­vene.

Ramkissoon was re­fer­ring to the ten per cent hous­ing which is sup­posed to be al­lo­cat­ed to of­fi­cers of the De­fence Force, Fire Ser­vices, Po­lice and Prison Ser­vices.

Dur­ing the past few weeks, the Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion has giv­en out 100 hous­es week­ly to ap­pli­cants and last week gave out 500 homes in a lot­tery draw.

Mooni­lal has been quot­ed as say­ing the pro­vi­sion for the pro­tec­tive ser­vices has been more than the amount al­lo­cat­ed at some of the dis­tri­b­u­tions.

How­ev­er, in a tele­phone in­ter­view yes­ter­day, Ramkissoon said he had no in­for­ma­tion that fire­fight­ers have been ben­e­fi­cia­ries of any part of the ten per cent of hous­ing al­lo­cat­ed to the pro­tec­tive ser­vices.

He added: "We de­mand the min­is­ter or the Prime Min­is­ter put some­thing in place so we can ac­cess hous­ing al­lo­cat­ed for pro­tec­tive ser­vices.

"Fire of­fi­cers have not been giv­en hous­ing pro­vi­sion un­der the gov­ern­ment pol­i­cy of ten per cent of all hous­ing un­der the Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion for sev­er­al years. We note with great dis­plea­sure the Gov­ern­ment state­ment that of­fi­cers have been in re­ceipt of this and that is to­tal­ly un­true. The as­so­ci­a­tion will not tol­er­ate this."

In fact, Ramkissoon said sev­er­al fire­fight­ers cur­rent­ly have nowhere to live and re­side out of their cars or live at the dor­mi­to­ries in the fire sta­tions.

"Three of­fi­cers live out of their cars and some sleep in fire sta­tions be­cause they can't af­ford to pay the rent and they have to sleep some­where. They can't sleep on the streets so they stay in the dor­mi­to­ry," he said.

He said fire­fight­ers place their lives in dan­ger every day for the pub­lic but at the end of their du­ty have nowhere to go.

"They will de­vel­op chron­ic res­pi­ra­to­ry ill­nesss due to in­hala­tion of tox­ic fumes from haz­ardous and com­bustible ma­te­r­i­al and feel to­tal­ly un­ap­pre­ci­at­ed and ig­nored by the Min­is­ter of Hous­ing and Gov­ern­ment by ex­ten­sion," he said.

Ramkissoon said some fire­fight­ers are al­so un­der threat from liv­ing in com­mu­ni­ties af­fect­ed by gang war­fare.

"Fire of­fi­cers are viewed as an im­ped­i­ment to that type of ac­tion and their lives are in threat. Fire of­fi­cers are ap­peal­ing for pro­vi­sion to re­lo­cate and get prop­er homes. Some have fam­i­lies and chil­dren and are un­able to se­cure a home on the open mar­ket," he added.