Emergency services are at the Half Way Tree Transport Centre where a man has mounted the building. The man, said to be a former firefighter, has a wire in his possession and has threatened suicide, Observer Online understands.

The incident has resulted in a huge crowd gathered around the St Andrew landmark as well as a build-up of traffic in the area.

A Jamaica Fire Brigade unit along with a crowd of curious onlookers at the Half Way Tree Transport Centre where a former fighter mounted the building and threatened suicide on Monday, January 6, 2025. (Photo: @rt_media360 /Ramon Thompson)

The man has reportedly requested to speak to members of the media.

The incident occurred nearly two years after firefighter Sergeant Leo Bennett went atop the transport centre to protest what he said was the ill-treatment of workers at the Jamaica Fire Brigade.

At the time of the incident in March 2023, Bennett said firefighters are “at the station every day of our working lives unless we are given some kind of leave; you don’t get days off. In other jurisdictions like Barbados, the United States, England, anywhere else you take it, firefighters work a different system where they can have a proper work/life balance. It is not so with the Jamaica Fire Brigade.”