You'll also remember the frank conversation that the press had with the Station Officer Orin Smith about the adequacy of the Fire Department's response to the deadly fire on San Pedro. Once again, the firefighters were put on blast for their performance, and the fact is that they ran out of water during a time when 3 houses were either on fire, or almost completely destroyed by the blaze.
A bucket brigade had to do some of the heavy lifting after the fire truck left to try and find an open water source. Now, to be clear, this is not the fire department's fault; we live in a country where there is very poor planning and few to no fire hydrants in residential communities, or just about anywhere. Truth is, a fire truck can only carry so much water; it can't carry the whole sea. In this case, the fire truck couldn't pull water from the sea, they had to use a pool.
And to compound matters, some of the fire trucks are ancient, and should have been retired a long time ago.
We've been sent photographs of one fire truck in the city with a broken chassis, and to keep it on the road, the firefighters had to weld it in three spots.
So, when we got a chance to speak with NEMO Minister Edmond Castro about last night's fire, we asked what the Government is trying to properly outfit the fire department.:
Hon. Edmond Castro - NEMO Minister
"The most recent proposal for us to try and see how we could get some water trucks with some 3 thousand gallon tanks and some 4 thousand gallon tanks that will assist the fire trucks that we have. Most of the fire trucks that we currently have if they are 20 years old, they are considered pretty good but in some cases they are as old as we and so we are trying to see how we can phase them out. We recently received a donation of a fire truck for Caye Caulker and so we have pledged to receive 2 fire trucks, I think one for Corozal and one for the Toledo district for PG. Those are in the pipeline and we should have them shortly and we also ordered 2 pumps for San Pedro and Caye Caulker, we should be getting them soon."
Daniel Ortiz
"The fire department often times gets an unfair black eye when they are trying to do their best with equipment that is outdated. Can you assure the public that your ministry and government is really serious in trying to equip the fire department with the resources they truly need to do the best job possible they can?"
Hon. Edmond Castro
"If you look since I took over the fire department, we have provider more training than ever before for firefighters. I think recently we have a couple firefighters that went abroad to study. We also not so long ago received a donation of a fire truck for Caye Caulker and we are waiting for the delivery of 2 more, one will be going to Corozal and one will be going to Punta Gorda. So we're constantly trying to see how we can best and upgrade our equipment."
Daniel Ortiz
"What will it take to retire those pieces of old equipment sir?"
Hon. Edmond Castro
"Political will is always there, that is the easiest one and cheapest one, political will. We have the political will, we're trying to secure the financing so that we can constantly upgrade the equipment for the fire department - when you're talking about equipment main the trucks and so on."
As you heard, 2 new fire trucks are being acquired at for Corozal and PG.
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