FALMOUTH, Trelawny — There are no fire stations or fire hydrants in the entire Trelawny Southern constituency and Dr Pauline Foster, the People’s National Party (PNP) councillor for the Ulster Spring Division, is not amused.

Speaking at the monthly meeting of the Trelawny Parish Council on Thursday, she lamented the absence of fire services for the communities of Ulster Spring, Albert Town, Wait-a-Bit, Warsop, Troy and other areas in the hilly parts of the parish and renewed calls for the establishment of a fire station in the yam-belt communities.

She argued that if a fire starts in the area, the fire unit will only get there in time for cooling-down operations since they have to travel from as far as Falmouth or Christiana in the neighbouring parish of Manchester.

“By the time a unit comes from Christiana or Falmouth they barely get there for cooling-down exercises, by then everything is destroyed. So we need a fire station up there, we need a fire truck up there. It is too far from everything so we need our own unit,” lamented Dr Foster.

“Too many times the statistics are proving that when the unit comes it can’t even cool down, it is just to record what happens,” she continued.

Ulster Spring is a distance of 41 kilometres from Falmouth, while Christianna is about 20 kilometres.

In the meantime, Foster, who has represented the Ulster Spring Division since 2012, said until the establishment of fire services in south Trelawny, she is advocating for fire wardens to be trained by the fire department.

“That does not allow the fire department to abdicate its responsibility in protecting us, but if we get training we can protect ourselves,” she argued.

She also appealed to residents to construct catchment tanks to harvest rain water to help themselves in controlling the spread of any fire that starts.

“As citizens, we should also take responsibility for our own well-being by being able to assist in protecting our own valuables, like our livestock and our houses and our families,” Dr Foster noted.