The Prime Minister says the National Security Council has directed the Minister of National Security to come up with an appropriate committee to investigate the response to the fire that led to the deaths of Government Minister Lisa Morris -Julian and two of her children.
And the National Security Minister was given a very specific deadline.
00:00Under a bright sunny sky, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley and members of his cabinet planted a tree to mark the opening of West Park in the borough of Deagle Martin on Wednesday.
00:11And because of the population that's around, it is the ideal place to have a park of this size and of this scale and of this nature.
00:19And while in the borough of Deagle Martin, TV6 News posed a question to the Prime Minister about a tragedy that occurred in another borough,
00:27where Minister in the Ministry of Education Lisa Morris-Julian, the MP for Derby de Omera and two of her children died in a fire at her home on Fafun Street, Arima on Monday.
00:38As the head of the National Security Council, were you able to or are you in a position to request of the fire service, the chief fire officer, any sort of report in terms of response or investigation into the fire?
00:52Yes, I did that this morning. I had a meeting with a small delegation from the National Security Council this morning.
01:00I had the minister also at midday and the minister has been directed by the National Security Council to put in place an appropriate inquiry as to how things went and assess and ascertain what actually happened.
01:19The fire service said on Monday that upon the arrival of firefighting crews, a request was made for additional water supply due to a lack of water in the area, a claim the Public Utilities Minister has denied.
01:30The Prime Minister said he arrived at the scene at quarter to eight on Monday morning and requested to speak with the officer in charge.
01:37And that officer turned up and alongside the officer was the head of the fire service. I specifically asked, did you have any problems with water?
01:47Trying to find out whether that may have contributed to the fact that the building went the way you have reported.
01:56I was told by both gentlemen there was no problem with water and more so they had backups in place in the event that there was a problem and that they had full cooperation, which was from the entities and I presume that meant WASA.
02:14The fire service said that at the time of the fire, it received the emergency call. However, the nearest fire station in Arima was engaged in an industrial fire and the Tunapuna fire station was simultaneously responding to another house fire.
02:29We need to know what happened, why, with a fire station on the corner of Fafa Street, why the first fire tender got there at the time that we know we got there.
02:42And I can tell you, we have been receiving conflicting information. And as a result of that, today, the National Security Council directed the Minister of National Security to come up by tomorrow afternoon with an appropriate committee to investigate why there wasn't a better response with a fire station on the corner.
03:07The Prime Minister said, quote, we need to know the undisputed facts, end quote. Jules Brown, TV6 News.
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