Monday’s tour by Minister of Homeland Security Roger Alexander has served to underscore the sorry state of the Princes Town Fire Station, which had to be abandoned last July amid complaints by officers about rat infestation and the like.
More alarmingly, however, is the fact that there have been seven house fires in the area since then, with at least two occurring in the past few days without a station close by to answer the distress call of the residents.
To make matters worse, other stations in the southern belt that should be called upon when Princes Town is unable to respond, namely Rio Claro and Penal, have also been deemed by the president of the Fire Service Association Keone Guy to be inadequate, adding to the dire situation at hand.
For years the association has been pleading for support while emphasising the importance of the authorities enhancing the country's ability to respond effectively and promptly to fires.
In fact, in July of last year, Guy expressed his concerns candidly, stating that the Fire Service was on the brink of "absolute and total collapse", while highlighting that numerous stations were lacking the necessary trucks, personal protective equipment and other resources to effectively respond to emergencies.
Back then, the Fire Service Association president had also shared statistics, revealing that nine out of the 23 stations nationwide did not have firefighting-capable tenders.
This included the same Princes Town Station, which was visited by Minister Alexander and senior fire officials on Monday, a few days after he announced the need to incorporate 280 auxiliary fire officers into the system due to a personnel shortage.
Ironically, even after major concerns were highlighted last year, the previous administration effectively slashed the Fire Service's funding in the 2025 Budget by more than 50 per cent.
The allocation for purchasing equipment and vehicles was reduced from $11.2 million in 2024 to just $4 million this year. The budget for vehicle maintenance was also cut by $500,000, and the allocation for building repairs and maintenance chopped by $510,000.
We remain hopeful that Minister Alexander's pledge to fix things will redound to the benefit of not only residents of Princes Town but other communities which are grappling with the slow fire response.
Following a recent fire, it took 45 minutes for the Mon Repos fire officers to respond, instead of the five minutes it would have taken had the Princes Town station been functional.
The recent tragic deaths of former D'Abadie/O'Meara MP Lisa Morris-Julian and two of her children also readily come to mind after they perished in a fire at their home on December 16.
Initial reports had suggested that Morris-Julian’s death could have been averted if the response time from the Arima and Tunapuna fire stations had been faster.
Despite the appointment of a three-member committee by former National Security minister Fitzgerald Hinds to investigate the fire service's response, the report has yet to be made public.
This hesitancy by the authorities to fully disclose what transpired does not offer comfort that everything possible that could have been done to avert the tragedy was indeed done.
On the contrary, it conjures up thoughts of an official cover-up of potentially embarrassing failures in this case.
Consequently, we urge the one-month-old Kamla Persad-Bissessar administration to reveal the facts of the Morris-Julian case.
At the same time, do not only talk of a fix while highlighting failures of the past government, but immediately get down to work to ensure the overall fire safety of our nation.