JFB to boost capacity with new stations, outstations

WESTERN BUREAU:

According to Desmond McKenzie, minister of local government and rural development, the Jamaica Fire Brigade (JFB) is currently conducting two separate assessments with a view of constructing new fire stations in Westmoreland and St Elizabeth.

Along with those two parishes, McKenzie, who has portfolio responsibility for the JFB, said an outstation will be built in Trelawny and another in St Andrew. He also indicated that funding for these projects will be provided for in the 2022-23 Budget.

“The assessment is being done now to determine what the needs are in terms of what kind of facilities we’ll be able to offer in those two locations,” McKenzie said, while addressing reporters on a recent tour of the newly constructed St James Fire Station.

“As soon as we have completed that, hopefully when I speak in the Sectoral Debate in the new financial year, I will have more details as it relates to those four new facilities that we are looking at,” he noted.

Members of the Westmoreland Municipal Corporation have been pleading for a fire substation to be built in the Bethel Town community, located in the hilly area of eastern Westmoreland, but years of pleading have not yet yielded any fruit.

In December, McKenzie, while admitting that there is a need for a fire station in eastern Westmoreland, said the Government had not signed off on any plans for the construction of such a facility in Bethel Town.

When quizzed as to whether the area being assessed in the parish was Bethel Town, McKenzie refused to divulge any information that would identify the location where the assessment is being carried out.

“I am not going to say. We are doing an assessment now on two areas, in Westmoreland and in St Elizabeth, and once those assessments have been done, then we will make a decision based on the assessment,” he insisted.

Residents in Bethel Town and its surrounding communities have suffered millions of dollars in losses due to fires in recent times. The nearest fire stations to the Bethel Town environs are located in Savanna-la-Mar, Montego Bay in St James, and Black River in St Elizabeth.

McKenzie further informed that plans for the construction of an outstation in Ulster Spring and Mona are now at an advanced stage.

“For the outstation in Ulster Spring in Trelawny, the lands have been acquired. The transfer of the lands in Mona has been done already to the Jamaica Fire Brigade, so later in the new financial year, I will be making further announcements as to Ulster Spring and Mona,” McKenzie said.

Meanwhile, Heroy Clarke, member of parliament for Central St James, where the newly built facility is located, expressed delight for the men and women who have been operating in less-than-acceptable conditions for many years.

“For far too long, our fire service men and women have been thrown all over the place, moving from one building to the next,” Clarke said. “If you want to deal with operations, you have to go to one building. If you want to deal with the administration, you have to go to another building,” he lamented.

He promised to ensure that the four-storey facility, constructed through the Jamaica Social Investment Fund at a cost of $750-million, will be properly maintained when fully operational.

“Now we have a first-class fire station, and we are going to make sure that we continue as firemen and (fire) women to make the minister (McKenzie) and the ministry proud of what they have done for us. We are going to maintain it to the best of our ability,” said Clarke.