$2B earmarked to build fire stations along south coast
Published:Friday | October 28, 2022 | 12:05 AMAinsworth Morris/Staff Reporter
The Government is pumping $2 billion into a project which will see the construction of eight new fire substations along the south coast of the island.
Prime Minister Andrew Holness made the announcement on Wednesday during the official opening of the Yallahs Fire Station in St Thomas.
The fire station was constructed to complement the new Southern Coastal Highway Project, which runs through the eastern parish.
“We only see the fire bridge as the entity that responds to a home fire or an industrial fire or something of that nature, but the fire bridge also has an emergency medical response function, and, as we have a new highway being built, no matter how we plead with the public to drive safely, and even though we are constructing the road to international standards to have safety inbuilt in the roads, there will be accidents, and, once you have these kinds of roads, which will be carrying a larger volume, there will be an increased number of traffic accidents,” Holness explained.
“So you need to have this kind of infrastructure standing in your parish to be able to respond,” he added.
Holness also said the construction of the $162.9-million Yallahs Fire Station is testament to the Government’s strategic intent of focusing on the development of St Thomas.
Jamaica Fire Brigade (JFB) Commissioner Stewart Beckford has welcomed the plans to construct new substations, especially near the new highways.
“Motor vehicle accidents, this is one area that we are a bit concerned about, because we know with the opening of the highway, there are likely to be an increase in the motor vehicle accidents happening in this parish,” he said.
Beckford added that the new Yallahs station will lift the morale of the firefighters serving in the parish.
“They will be working in an environment that will facilitate improved service delivery to the people of Yallahs and its environs. No longer can we say that St Thomas is the forgotten parish,” he said.
Beckford added that, with new developments, St Thomas’ risk profile has changed over the years, with growth in housing stock and population. He said there are 106 early childhood institutions in the parish, along with 43 schools, three community colleges, five hotels and one hospital, which they have to serve in addition to numerous businesses and residences.
Over the last five years, the St Thomas division of the JFB responded to 2,577 emergency calls, inclusive of structural, farmlands and motor vehicle accidents.
He said, however, that the parish is one of the safest from a fire and life safety standpoint, with no fire-related deaths recorded in St Thomas in the last five years.
The fire station will serve approximately 95,000 residents and will accommodate 40 staff, including administrators and firefighters.
With this new facility, it is expected to improve the response time and human resource capacity of the local fire department.