WESTMORELAND, Jamaica— The emergency medical service (EMS) department at the Negril Fire Station which has been without a working ambulance for the past eight months, received a well-needed boost on Friday with the donation of a new ambulance, valued at $18 million.

The vehicle was funded by the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF), which also provided an additional $7.6 million for the renovation of the fire station in the resort town, which had been in a state of disrepair.

Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett, who was in attendance at yesterday’s handing over ceremony, stressed the importance of safety and security.

“Safety enables a feeling that you can move around seamlessly, you can move around freely, [and] confident that if something happens, there is a recourse, there is a reference, there is protection. And, the fire department is that big area for us…when the fire department is properly resourced it reduces the risk in our space. And, reducing the risk in our space gives us the confidence that we can move about and the visitors can feel the same sense of security, and safety that we all feel,” Bartlett argued.

Member of Parliament for Westmoreland Western and the opposition spokesman on tourism, Dr Wykeham McNeill, commended the firefighters for “doing a tremendous job with little resources.”

Mayor of Savanna-la-Mar Bertel Moore, who is also the councillor for the Negril area, was also equally passionate about the service provided by the firefighters.

According to Assistant Superintendent at the Negril fire station William Dixon, the fire brigade in Westmoreland gets an average of 150 calls for ambulance service per month of which Negril accounts for approximately 120 or an average of four calls per day.

He pointed out that even though the ambulance responds to a number of medical and motor vehicle calls, the majority of the calls in Negril result from motorcycle accidents, which he says, place a strain on resources.

Anthony Lewis