By Tahna Weston
Concerns are being expressed about the potential dangers posed by the lack of pipe-borne water in certain communities may have in terms of fires.
This becomes a matter of interest after firefighters had difficulty in getting water from nearby fire hydrants while putting out a fire at Coco Rose early yesterday morning (August 19).
A source said there was no running water in the surrounding area and residents say Monday was the eighth day that the constituency has been without pipe-borne water.
Reportedly the fire completely destroyed the 60 x 50 laundry room of the establishment.
Reports are that the blaze started some time after 1am, however, because of the difficulty with getting water and having to travel to other areas to refill the fire trucks, which ran out of water, firefighters did not leave the scene until about 5:30am, according to the source.
“The firefighters had to leave from the Ffryes beach area and go to the airport road to refill. This is unacceptable knowing that there is a reverse osmosis [RO] plant at Ffreys Beach, but there is no water,” the source said.
Observer was reliably informed that three fire tenders were dispatched to the scene, one from All Saints and two from St John’s.
Further, the source said that the Johnson’s Point Fire Station, which is closest to the scene, does not have a fire tender as its engine was sent for use by fire officers at the All Saints Fire Station. It is alleged that the truck used in All Saints has not been operational since earlier this year.
“You need good management from persons who believe in the [fire] department to manage in terms of from government’s perspective, because without water you pretty much don’t have life. So, it’s just showing you urgency and importance of water; and as the good book says water is life,” the source said.
According to the source, firefighters are operating, just as the rest of the force, without the requisite tools to effectively do their jobs.
Our newsroom contacted Minister of Public Safety Sir Steadroy Benjamin who was unaware that any of the fire stations were lacking fire tenders.
Sir Steadroy said that the government had equipped the force with adequate trucks. This included in 2022 when two trucks were brought in, one from the US and the other from the UK.
He said that at least six or seven fire tenders are expected to arrive in the country shortly.
In early July this year the Cabinet approved the purchase of five new fire trucks to be stationed in St John’s, Cobbs Cross, All Saints, Johnson’s Point and the VC Bird International Airport.
However, these trucks are expected to have less capacity than the 2,500-gallon water capacity trucks at the Fire Departments.
After meeting with the top brass of the Fire Department to discuss the growing needs of the department, the decision was taken to purchase those with 1,000–gallon water tanks, as the higher capacity trucks are slower and harder to manoeuvre on the narrow streets across the island.
Repeated efforts to get a comment from Coco Rose about the fire proved futile.
