Twen­ty-sev­en fire of­fi­cers were pro­mot­ed to the rank of fire sta­tion of­fi­cers yes­ter­day at the Trinidad and To­ba­go Fire Ser­vice Head­quar­ters on Wright­son Road, Port-of-Spain.

The three top spots on the mer­it list were filled by fe­male fire of­fi­cers. This is the first large batch of of­fi­cers be­ing pro­mot­ed since 2016.

Chief Fire Of­fi­cer Arnold Bris­tow spoke to Guardian Me­dia at the cer­e­mo­ny. He said the aim is to en­sure of­fi­cers are se­cure in their po­si­tions in or­der for them to per­form ef­fec­tive­ly.

“The mo­ti­vat­ing fac­tor be­hind this is to have the of­fi­cers set­tled in their re­spec­tive po­si­tions so that we could dri­ve the or­gan­i­sa­tion to de­liv­er on the man­date for the Fire Ser­vice and we are sup­posed to be able to pro­vide for the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go, ef­fec­tive fire ser­vice and ef­fec­tive fire­fight­ing and fire pre­ven­tion prac­tices. We would have ob­served that when of­fi­cers are not se­cure in their tenure, it makes it a lit­tle dif­fi­cult for them to func­tion. Hav­ing that process com­plet­ed with the help of the Ser­vice Com­mis­sion, of­fi­cers can now fo­cus on the ac­tiv­i­ties that are ahead of them in ful­fill­ing our strate­gic man­date to the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go”.

The Chief Fire Of­fi­cer said 27 sub­sta­tion of­fi­cers were el­e­vat­ed to the rank of fire sta­tion of­fi­cers.

“That is what we will have as key of­fi­cers in the mid­dle of the or­gan­i­sa­tion be­cause they’re at the high­er end of the Sec­ond Di­vi­sion and as­pir­ing to the First Di­vi­sion and it is one of the key links in the or­gan­i­sa­tion, they are the ones that will be re­spon­si­ble for the re­spec­tive watch­es and re­spec­tive sta­tions to en­able the of­fi­cers on their com­mand to car­ry out their func­tions.”

He added that the Fire Ser­vice has been hav­ing pro­mo­tions quite reg­u­lar­ly with­in the last year, as the Ser­vice Com­mis­sion has been mov­ing to fill the va­can­cies.

“How­ev­er, as far as the Fire Ser­vice is con­cerned, the last set of large pro­mo­tions we would have had would have been back in 2016.”

Fire Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent Leo Ramkissoon said they had been lob­by­ing for more pro­mo­tions and is pleased with this lat­est step.

“It has been long-suf­fer­ing and we have been strug­gling and re­al­ly push­ing for these pro­mo­tions to take place and I’m so hap­py to be that the of­fi­cers will have been pro­mot­ed,” Ramkissoon said.