HANOVER, Jamaica — The month-long malfunctioning of the Hanover Fire Department’s phone lines drags on, with concerns that callers who need help may not know how to access it.

Emergency calls to the number are routed to the Westmoreland fire station. But callers who are trying to contact the Hanover fire department sometimes hang up when they are told they have reached fire fighters in another parish.

At Thursday’s monthly general meeting of the Hanover Municipal Corporation, second in command at the Lucea branch of the Jamaica Fire Brigade, Gary Watson asked callers to be patient.

“If you have persons around that have a genuine emergency call and you hear ‘Savanna-la-Mar Fire Station’, please listen and then deliver your information,” he urged.

Watson explained that once a caller delivers a report to Westmoreland, it is forwarded to Hanover via cell phone.

On hearing the issue, Mayor of Lucea Sheridan Samuels suggested that the parish name should be avoided when calls are being answered. However, Watson said that would not be ideal as callers with an emergency want to know they are calling the correct and nearest station to them.

Mayor Samuels then pointed to the importance of having the issue rectified and Watson informed him the service provider had advised that they were working on the issue and technicians would visit the premises on Thursday. However, checks by OBSERVER ONLINE a short while ago revealed that telephone company technicians had failed to show.

Watson said efforts are now being made within the brigade to have a temporary solution implemented — hopefully, by the end of Friday.

– Anthony Lewis.