WATCH: Brown Burke urges Gov’t to provide more support to firefighters
KINGSTON, Jamaica – Following a fire in the Greenwich Town community last week which resulted in three firefighters being hospitalised, Member of Parliament for St Andrew South Western, Angela Brown Burke, is urging the government to do more to assist members of the Jamaica Fire Brigade (JFB).
Three JFB members sustained injuries as they came in contact with live electrical wires strewn across the premises on 7th Street. It is suspected that illegal connections were the reason behind the blaze.
READ: WATCH: Three firefighters suffer electric shock while battling house blaze
In an interview with Observer Online in the aftermath of the fire, Stewart Beckford, commissioner of the JFB, said his men were properly attired and equipped at the time of the incident. Still, Brown Burke insists that more support needs to be given to members of the JFB as they put their lives on the line everyday to protect the property and lives of their fellow Jamaicans.
“One of the things that cross my mind when we see an incident like that is the memory of that firefighter on top of the Half- Way -Tree Transport Centre making a plea for increased wages and for better treatment as well as protective gear for firefighters,” she said. “I want to make an appeal to the government and to the authorities to make sure that our firefighters are provided with the necessary protective gear and that in terms of just salaries and so on, that we remember the kind of sacrifice that they have to make in terms of protecting life and property of Jamaicans.”
Sending sympathies to the families of the affected firefighters, the MP said members of the JFB sacrifice a lot and deserve to be treated with utmost regard.
“Sympathies go out to the families and to the men as well who were injured and a plea of course to the government to just make sure that we treat them the way they deserve to be treated based on the work that they do,” she stressed.
Meanwhile, remembering the victims of the fire, Brown Burke said, she, along with councillors in the area, have already pledged to provide assistance to those affected.
