Corporation chariman repeats call to reopen P/Town fire station

Senior Reporter

sascha.wilson@guadian.co.tt

Five months after the Princes Town Fire Station was closed due to a rodent infestation, Princes Town Regional Corporation chairman Gowrie Roopnarine is appealing to the Ministry of National Security to reopen the facility or implement an alternative arrangement.

His appeal came on the heels of Monday’s horrific house fire in Arima that claimed the lives of Minister in the Ministry of Education Lisa Morris-Julian and two of her children.

In a telephone interview with Guardian Media, Roopnarine lamented, “Once more, I am pleading with the Ministry of National Security to reopen the Princes Town Fire Station. I could have never believed that they were going to close the fire station for so long. I thought they would have made some arrangement for a fire truck to be in and around that station so that should an emergency happen in the region of Princes Town we would not have anyone losing their life.” Recalling that a fire officer’s house was destroyed in a fire in New Grant last week, he said if the station had been functional, there might have been a different result.

Roopnarine said he was uncertain where the officers were relocated or where the fire tender was assigned, but said Princes Town desperately needed a fire station.

Roopnarine noted that Princes Town had a population of 170,000 residents, and the station serviced four constituencies, including Naparima, Princes Town, Moruga/Tableland and Tabaquite.

Contacted for an update, Fire Service Association president Keone Guy said since the relocation of the officers, the Government had allocated $1 million towards the construction of a new station in Princes Town. Cognisant that the allocation was insufficient to complete a fire station, Guy said they were not expecting any construction in the next fiscal term. Therefore, he said, the Association had suggested in the interim, that a temporary location be identified for the fire officers so that Princes Town would have the necessary protection.

“Offering protection from either Penal, Siparia or Rio Claro is really unacceptable as the nearest station there is about 16 kilometres away, that would mean that the response time is outside of 20 minutes plus,” he said.

When fire officers refused to occupy the building in July, Guy had described the station as a “house of horrors” and complained about holes in the ceiling, asbestos, dilapidated bathroom and toilet facilities, and non-functional lights and air condition units.

Then Chief Fire Officer Arnold Bristo, who is now on pre-retirement leave, said then that the station was one of the facilities identified in 2013 to be rebuilt, but there were stations in a worse state that were given priority.

Guardian Media sent WhatsApp messages to Minister of National Security Fitzgerald Hinds, Minister Keith Scotland and Acting Chief Fire Officer Andy Hutchinson but received no responses last evening.

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