Tancoo – Incompetent Hinds playing Russian Roulette with lives of Firefighters

“It is one thing to be constantly sleeping on the job, but something completely differently when putting the very lives of those you are responsible for at ultimate risk!” exclaims MP for Oropouche West Dave Tancoo, who is alleging that due to the utter incompetence and failure of National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds, he is playing a game of Russian Roulette with the lives of our nation’s firefighters.

Tancoo’s comments came in response to newspaper reports of a San Juan fire on Thursday that destroyed a building housing four families, where, in working to extinguish the blaze fire officers had to share only two pieces of breathing apparatus and were using fire hoses with multiple leaks. The news article stated that despite four (4) fire tenders being called out, within the space of two hours, the building was completely engulfed and destroyed.

“The most upsetting part in all this is that it is shameful enough that firefighters had to share breathing apparatus, but that in the face of such damning evidence to the contrary, the Minister of National Security continues to assure citizens that the T&T Fire Service is well equipped”, says Tancoo.

During a media brief held by the Fire Service Association last month, their president Mr. Keone Guy was on record as saying, “We need 400 breathing apparatus sets, but we probably have less than ten in circulation right now,” Guy said. “The importance of this PPE cannot be understated, as the fire service saw an increase in fires from 400 last year, to 3,000 this year.”

During last year’s Standing Finance Committee when allocations to the various Ministries were considered, Minister Fitzgerald Hinds stated that Cabinet had approved the purchase of 225 sets of breathing apparatus. He refused to give a timeline as to when they would be made available to our firefighters but said that he was “moving expeditiously”.

The Oropouche West MP notes, “This was eight months ago. While the Minister continues to alternate between promises and excuses, our firefighters are working without the bare minimum tools needed and are risking their own lives in the process. For this year alone, at least twenty-six fire officers have had to seek medical attention from injuries sustained during firefighting incidents. Is Hinds waiting for a firefighter to die in the line of duty?”.

Tancoo also said that their workplaces were also in questionable condition, with recent reports of officers having to sleep in the parking bay of the fire service headquarters in Port of Spain due to a non-functional air-conditioning system. “Instead of making sure that these issues never arise, we have a Minister who chooses to refer to persons as confusionists and bacchanalists when they raise these issues.”.

The Opposition MP has also viewed with concern the position that the Chief Fire Officer (CFO) has taken to refute claims made by the Fire Services Association and says that in light of such a strange position being adopted, he can’t help but wonder whether there were political considerations involved. Recently, despite members of his own Fire Service describing them as unusable, the CFO denied allegations that the 20 wooden ladders procured for the Fire Service at a cost of approximately $1 million were not being used.

On this matter, the Oropouche West MP has also called on the Integrity Commission to provide an update following its letter of February 23rd to the CFO giving him 14 days to provide all requested information. “By now the Integrity Commission is supposed to have in its possession all the requested documents relating to the procurement of said wooden ladders and the country eagerly awaits on learning what the Commission’s findings would be” says Tancoo.

Tancoo said that his message to the Government was both simple and clear: “Do not play politics with the lives of our fire officers! It is already bad enough that the Prime Minister sees it fit to retain this colossal disappointment in charge of our country’s national security, but to endorse a Senior Cabinet Minister who cannot provide what is necessary, at minimum, to ensure the safety of the men and women in our fire service is to be equally guilty of such incompetence and failure!”