PORTLAND, Jamaica — Member of Parliament for West Portland, Daryl Vaz has again expressed concern about the lack of a fire truck at Buff Bay in the parish and has called on government to immediately rectify the situation.

Vaz said that the absence of a truck in Buff Bay has added to the already serious inability of the Fire Service in Portland to cope with the number of fires due to the prevailing dry conditions.

Vaz made his call against the background of three recent bush fires in the parish — one in Woodstock, which threatened a nearby housing scheme for days as well as another in Chepstowe/Bybrook wiping out hundreds of acres of farm land and one in Bangaridge from Saturday last.

He said that the fire truck in Buff Bay has not been working for months and that no other measures have been put in place.

“With only one fire truck working in the parish we are in crisis and courting disaster,” said Vaz, who added that based on the hilly terrain and size of the parish, one fire truck cannot cope.

He called on the Minister of Local Government Noel Arscott to immediately allocate another fire truck temporarily to Buff Bay while allocating  the necessary funds to fix the existing fire truck assigned to Buff Bay as well as the many hydrants out of commission including three of four which are not working in the Woodstock Housing scheme.