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  • 1 year ago
The Fire Service Association is calling for a meeting with the National Security Minister. This, as it doubles down on the picture it painted of the Fire Service in dire-straights.


It says, what was said is simply the truth.


Alicia Boucher has the details from Morning Edition.
Transcript
00:00National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hines on August 8th said he didn't know
00:05what would have prompted the Fire Service Association to say that a fire
00:08service is unable to respond to fires because of a lack of firefighting
00:13appliances. The minister pointed to a statement released by the fire service
00:17and signaled that acquiring equipment is a work in progress and he further stated
00:22that most people including organizations do not have everything to perfection.
00:26While President of the Fire Service Association Kian Guy is responding to that.
00:57We believe it's our duty to report to the public who ultimately are the ones
01:01that we account to as to the readiness of the fire service. Guy doubles down on
01:06what the association said previously stating that at this time the situation
01:12is serious. The fire service is in dire state and we need a lot of assistance
01:17from the Ministry of National Security. So if the minister if the minister's
01:21statement is indeed accurate then I would suggest that the minister reaches
01:25out to the association and meet with us something which he has not done since
01:29we have taken office for the past eight months. Meanwhile the fire service in its
01:34statement highlighted efforts that are being made to address a number of issues.
01:38We saw the statement of the chief officer in the fire service and we saw it as an
01:43attempt to downplay the situation or the realities as they are on the ground at
01:49the moment. But the fire service did not directly respond to the association's
01:53claims that fire appliances are short in supply and that some fire stations have
01:58none whatsoever. Now within the last 24 hours we can acknowledge that the chief
02:03fire officer has indeed placed some appliances at stations that were
02:09previously without. This has occurred. However we are seeing that these
02:13appliances are derelict and not a hundred percent operational. So while on
02:20paper it may seem as though these holes would have been filled in reality it
02:26does nothing to improve our emergency response capabilities. As for breathing
02:31apparatus sets the association claims that there are 19 available in Trinidad
02:36to be circulated for use among the entire service and none in Tobago. Guy
02:41describes any statement outside of that as untruthful. Alicia Boucher TV6 News
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