WESTERN BUREAU – Member of Parliament for North Trelawny Dr Patrick Harris has made a written request for an additional fire unit and a new fire station for Falmouth.

“Trelawny, in particular, is one of the largest parishes geographically and is at the core of the sugar belt,” he said in his letter to Local Government Minister Portia Simpson Miller.

“Therefore, I implore you to use your office to put right this urgent situation by stationing an additional fire unit and building a new fire station.”

The letter came after Dr Harris and councillor for the Falmouth division, Garth Wilkinson, toured the Falmouth fire department last week.

The improvements to the parish’s fire service, the MP maintained, has taken on added urgency with impending plans to add 5,700 hotel rooms and new homes to the parish.

Firefighters were relocated from the run-down firehouse to the abandoned Trelawny Infirmary’s matron cottage last year. The dilapidated fire station building still houses the administrative offices.

The leaking roof and limited space at firefighters’ current accommodation is of major concern to the firefighters and to the member of parliament.

“Coupled with the fact that the lay-out is totally inimical to firefighting, a section of the roof leaks when it rains . I don’t think it would cost much to fix the leak, but it needs to be addressed,” Dr Harris noted.

Acting Deputy Superintendent Dolfin Doeman, who was transferred to the parish over a month ago, is in full support of the MP.

He described the current conditions as “very bad”.

“At present the operational staff has to be housed elsewhere.

I do not get to see the people, as I ought to be seeing them, my office is away from them,” he complained. “Had they been here, I would be seeing them on a daily basis or just about every time I come in. However, they being down there, I have to make my periodic visits.”

Being at separate locations does not augur well for the discipline of his staff, he argued.

“It also impacts on the discipline. I am not saying they are bad persons, but were they around me they would have been a bit sharper,” he explained.

Permanent secretary in the local government ministry Loraine Robinson appeared confident, however, that the situation would be remedied soon.

“That is one of the stations that have to be done. In her sectoral presentation, the minister mentioned that that is the one that we would start with this year,” she told the Observer.

Robinson pointed out, meanwhile, that a study on the structure and management of the fire brigade would be done by September with assistance from the British Government.

“An approach was made, through the Cabinet public sector reform unit, for the British to help us to do a full study of the structure and management of the fire brigade. The letter and the whole present proposal went off and hopefully that study would be done in August/September,” she disclosed.

The permanent secretary is hoping a report on that study will be available by November.

“So far, that is what I am hearing and a report should be given to me maybe by October/November. That’s what we are working towards. Until I get something definite out of Cabinet office though I can only tell you what I am being told.

But that study is going to be done definitely this year. I can assure you,” she added.