Jamaica Fire Brigade Commissioner Stewart Beckford is speculating that local firefighter Shamare Myrie would probably have been back in the island and alive today had he not applied for and received a 10-day extension on his vacation.

“We’ll never know,” Beckford, his voice heavy with grief, told the Jamaica Observer on Sunday, a day after he was informed that 33-year-old Myrie was stabbed to death in an altercation with another Jamaican man in Gaylord, Michigan, United States.

He said that Myrie’s application for an additional 10 days on his 30-day vacation would have resulted in him returning to work at Trench Town Fire Station on Tuesday this week.

“We always encourage team members to take their vacation, be with their family and relax away from the stress of the fire brigade job. But we also know that persons will take their vacation and will do other jobs to augment their income. He applied for the extension, he had it to his credit, and it was approved,” Beckford said.

“We got the sad news yesterday [Saturday] at about 5:00 pm that he was involved in an altercation with another man and both of them received stab wounds and were taken to hospital,” the fire commissioner said.

The Gaylord Police Department reported that approximately 3:00 pm on Saturday officers responded to Sun Frog Solutions on O’Rouke Boulevard for an altercation involving a stabbing.

“Upon arrival officers located two males with severe lacerations and puncture wounds from edged weapons. The officers secured the scene and provided medical aid. Otsego Country EMS arrived on [the] scene and transported both subjects to Munson Otsego Memorial Hospital for treatment,” the police report said.

It added that one of the men, a 33-year-old, died from his injuries and the other, a 35-year-old, received emergency surgery for serious injuries.

The police also said that both men were temporary workers from Jamaica working at Sun Frog Solutions.

The company is an online retailer of custom T-shirts and apparel designs.

On Sunday, Beckford said the information he received so far was that Myrie and the other man had not been getting along since Myrie started working there about four weeks ago.

He said that Myrie joined the fire service in 2015 and was stationed at Trench Town Fire Station for all of his tenure.

“He was married and has two sons, one 10 and the other two years old,” Beckford told the
Observer. “We are told that his wife, who is living in the United States, will be travelling with another relative to Michigan tomorrow [today].”

“It’s never easy. For me, the difficult part is to speak with the family when these things happen,” the fire chief said.

“It is very, very difficult at this time for the members and in particularly those at the Trench Town Fire Station. We dispatched the chaplaincy unit to that station this morning (Sunday) to give support and grief counselling to the members and we have been in touch with his family. He has a sister who is a firefighter stationed at York Park Fire Station,” Beckford disclosed.

“At this time the fire brigade is in mourning because this is the seventh death we’ve had since the start of this year. We have a funeral for next week Sunday of a member who died of natural causes,” added Beckford.