KPB WANTS FORENSIC PROBE INTO FIRE AT MP’s HOME

CCNTV6

The Opposition Leader is calling for a proper criminal forensic investigation into the tragic fire in which Government Minister Lisa Morris-Julian and two of her children died at the Minister's home on Monday.      This, as the Fire Service has said its Fire Prevention Department and the Police Service are continuing investigations into the fire.      Juhel Browne reports

Transcript

00:00There should be a criminal investigation. This is this is a scene where you have

00:05three persons being who died. There should be a forensic clinical criminal

00:11investigation as well. The call from opposition leader Kamala Prasad Bhassa

00:15during a media conference at the UNC's headquarters in Chagonas on Thursday

00:20with regard to the fire in which Minister in the Ministry of Education

00:23and PNM MP Lisa Morrish-Julian and two of her children tragically died at the

00:29minister's home on Monday. The opposition leader was responding to a

00:33question from TV6 News which was in part about an announcement made by Prime

00:38Minister Dr. Keith Rowley on Wednesday. Why with a fire station on the corner

00:43of Fafan Street, why the first fire tender got there at the time that we now

00:49know he got there and I can tell you we have been receiving conflicting

00:54information and as a result of that today the National Security Council

01:00directed the Minister of National Security to come up by tomorrow

01:04afternoon with an appropriate committee to investigate why there wasn't a better

01:12response with a fire station on the corner.

01:15There's nothing wrong with a committee but who's going to be in that committee?

01:18If you're going to put your hand pictures on not independent persons and then what's the

01:23point? Let the fire officers and the police TTPS, they have to do an

01:30investigation as well. We don't know what happened and I don't want to pretend to

01:34know I don't know. That is why you need in addition to whatever committee the

01:37Prime Minister, which again I have no faith in any committee he sets up. I can name

01:41about 50 committees set up and we've never seen the reports and nothing has

01:45ever come out of those. But we should have a proper criminal

01:49investigation forensic into what transpired on that very tragic day or night.

01:54The fire service said on Monday that its fire prevention department and the

01:59TTPS are continuing investigations into the fire. The fire service also said that

02:03upon the arrival of firefighting crews a request was made for additional water

02:08supply due to a lack of water in the area. The Prime Minister and the Public

02:12Utilities Minister have said there was no problem with the water supply.

02:16Meanwhile the Fire Services Association has said there are critical deficiencies

02:21within the fire service.

02:33The organisation too is in a bad way in terms of equipment, lack of resources, lack of

02:38funding. I don't want to go into the details of what I have heard about what

02:43happened on that very tragic day. But it's no secret in this country that the

02:49fire service is totally underfunded, under-resourced in terms of equipment, in

02:53terms of other kinds of equipment. When TV6 News asked the opposition leader

02:58whether she sought to address some of those very issues in the fire service

03:02during her tenure as Prime Minister, she said that while she did not have that

03:07brief in front of her, she is sure her administration did and would have tried

03:12to do so. Jule Brown, TV6 News.

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