Gail Alexan­der

Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Fitzger­ald Hinds says three fire sta­tions which aren’t con­sid­ered to have ap­pli­ances up to full op­er­a­tion stan­dards are “cov­ered” by oth­er sta­tions and breath­ing ap­pa­ra­tus for fire of­fi­cers are be­ing re­paired.

Hinds con­firmed this in Par­lia­ment yes­ter­day in re­ply to Op­po­si­tion MP Rudy In­dars­ingh on the num­ber of fire sta­tions which have in­op­er­a­ble fire trucks and equip­ment.

Hinds said ac­cord­ing to in­for­ma­tion from the Chief Fire Of­fi­cer, of T&T’s 25 fire sta­tions, the Bel­mont, Mor­vant and Tu­na­puna sta­tions could be con­sid­ered to have ap­pli­ances that are not up to full and ef­fi­cient op­er­a­tional stan­dards.

“Notwith­stand­ing this, Stan­dard Op­er­at­ing Pro­ce­dures of the T&T Fire Ser­vice (TTFS) pre­scribe that in any sit­u­a­tion where a fire sta­tion con­tains such equip­ment, which may al­so oc­cur un­ex­pect­ed­ly, cov­er­age plans take ef­fect. That is to say that equip­ment at fire sta­tions in the sur­round­ing ar­eas are utilised,” Hinds added.

Cov­er­age plans pre­scribe that the Bel­mont sta­tion is cov­ered by Head­quar­ters North, Mor­vant Fire sta­tions (by Head­quar­ters North and the San Juan Fire Sta­tion) and Tu­na­puna Fire Sta­tion is cov­ered by the Ari­ma and San Juan Fire sta­tions.

Hinds added, “The need for re­pairs, main­te­nance and ac­qui­si­tion of new ve­hi­cles and equip­ment is an on­go­ing ac­tiv­i­ty and the min­istry is in con­stant com­mu­ni­ca­tion with the TTFS to bring res­o­lu­tion to this on­go­ing need. Cab­i­net re­cent­ly ap­proved $30 mil­lion for the pur­chase of more ve­hi­cles for the TTFS. Process for the ac­qui­si­tion is un­der­way.”

Hinds was asked about breath­ing ap­pa­ra­tus fol­low­ing an in­ci­dent where fire of­fi­cer Kelvin Headley re­cent­ly col­lapsed af­ter his ap­pa­ra­tus didn’t func­tion.

Hinds said in the last eight weeks, the TTFS ac­quired parts and equip­ment to re­pair such ap­pa­ra­tus and re­pairs are un­der­way.

Min­is­ter in the Prime Min­is­ter’s Of­fice Stu­art Young lat­er halt­ed UNC MP Sad­dam Ho­sein, who was query­ing a mat­ter con­cern­ing de­vices based on an af­fi­davit.

But Young not­ed it was sub­ju­dice, as it was part of a court mat­ter.