LUCEA, Hanover — Slated to receive 10 of 106 recently trained firefighters, the Hanover branch of the Jamaica Fire Brigade now needs more space.

This has rekindled a long-running debate over where a substation should be built.

“I want to use this opportunity to seek the assistance of the council because we have outgrown this space that we are in and we are trying to find that space which can accommodate the team,” District Officer Richard Lumsden told last Thursday’s regular monthly meeting of the Hanover Municipal Corporation.

In response, Councillor Devon Brown (Jamaica Labour Party, Hopewell Division) suggested that the issue can be alleviated by constructing well-needed substations in Hopewell and Chester Castle or Ramble. These are all locations in Hanover Eastern.

For years councillors and residents in the eastern end of the parish have been calling for the construction of at least one substation to serve the area.

They have argued that the lone fire station in the parish is located in Hanover’s capital town, Lucea, which — in some cases — is over 20 miles away from their communities. For some sections of the parish, they are closer to the Barnett Street Fire Station in St James and the Savanna-la-Mar Fire Station in Westmoreland.

Lucea is located in the western end of the parish and the land on which the fire station is located belongs to the Hanover Municipal Corporation. Brown told the meeting that it was time to revisit earlier suggestions to construct substations outside of the parish capital.

“The time it will take the fire brigade to leave Lucea to reach Chester Castle and Hopewell, everything [would have] been totally demolished,” he said to Lumsden. “So you can talk with your supervisors and see if that still exists and make representation to the Government to construct a fire station in the Hopewell space and the Chester Castle space.”

However, Mayor of Lucea Sheridan Samuels suggested to the meeting that locations within Lucea should also be considered.

After the meeting, he explained his rationale to the Jamaica Observer, stressing that the next step has to be made by the fire department.

“We, the corporation, don’t have any control over them. It is for them to engage the different agencies that own those places or lease those places or have access to those places,” he explained.

He cautioned, however, that constructing a new fire station in the eastern end of the parish at this time could be costly.

“It is well needed, of course, but do they have money to construct two? Because the other one in Hopewell would be a substation. Would they have the money to construct two at the same time?” questioned Samuels.

“If they go [to Hanover Eastern] they are going to need a truck up there too. So the expense that the substation is going to come with, can they afford it? Would it make sense to have a substation without a fire truck?” he argued.

For now, Councillor Brown has offered firefighter Lumsden a suggestion on how to temporarily accommodate the new employees.

“This is 10 new staff; don’t worry about anything man. Send some to Hopewell and send some to Chester Castle,” quipped the councillor.