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Friday, July 25, 2025

Fire Service talks reignited with push for reforms

by

3 days ago
20250721

The Min­istry of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty and the Fire Ser­vice As­so­ci­a­tion have re­sumed high-lev­el talks aimed at tack­ling long-stand­ing is­sues af­fect­ing fire­fight­ers across the coun­try.

At a meet­ing to­day, Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der met with As­so­ci­a­tion Pres­i­dent Keone Guy and oth­er rep­re­sen­ta­tives to dis­cuss key mat­ters, in­clud­ing fund­ing, equip­ment, safe­ty, and pen­sions. Among the top pri­or­i­ties was the long-de­layed Mor­ris-Ju­lian Re­port.

The As­so­ci­a­tion has re­quest­ed that a redact­ed ver­sion of the re­port—which con­tains find­ings and rec­om­men­da­tions re­lat­ed to the Fire Ser­vice—be re­leased to the pub­lic. Guy said its pub­li­ca­tion would help re­store trans­paren­cy and im­prove morale among fire­fight­ers.

Min­is­ter Alexan­der agreed that re­leas­ing the re­port could be a sig­nif­i­cant morale boost­er and gave the As­so­ci­a­tion his as­sur­ance that the mat­ter would be brought be­fore Cab­i­net for con­sid­er­a­tion.

Oth­er key is­sues on the agen­da in­clud­ed:

Har­mon­is­ing re­tire­ment rules with NIS pen­sion el­i­gi­bil­i­ty

In­tro­duc­ing pre­sump­tive ill­ness cov­er­age for dis­eases linked to fire­fight­ing

Im­prov­ing PPE and fire sta­tion con­di­tions

In­creas­ing bud­get al­lo­ca­tions for op­er­a­tions, train­ing, and med­ical needs

Re-es­tab­lish­ing struc­tured quar­ter­ly di­a­logue among the Min­istry, Fire Ser­vice As­so­ci­a­tion, and Fire Ser­vice Ad­min­is­tra­tion

The As­so­ci­a­tion stressed that many of these con­cerns have been raised re­peat­ed­ly over the past decade, but lit­tle progress was made un­der the pre­vi­ous ad­min­is­tra­tion.

To­day’s meet­ing comes five days af­ter a house fire in Las Cuevas claimed the life of 54-year-old Ian Burn­ley and trig­gered pub­lic out­rage over the Fire Ser­vice’s de­layed re­sponse. The San­ta Cruz sta­tion, the near­est to the scene, had no func­tion­ing ve­hi­cle. A ten­der from San Juan broke down en route, forc­ing a third unit from Wright­son Road to re­spond more than two hours af­ter the ini­tial 911 call.

Chief Fire Of­fi­cer Andy Hutchin­son called the de­lay “un­ac­cept­able,” cit­ing chron­ic equip­ment fail­ure and re­source short­ages as key fac­tors. He said most of the Ser­vice’s fleet is out­dat­ed and that of­fi­cers are de­mor­alised but do­ing their best un­der dif­fi­cult con­di­tions.


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