Senior Investigative Reporter
sharlene.rampersad
@guardian.co.tt
Months after Occupational Health and Safety (OSH) inspectors identified over 20 health and safety violations at the Rio Claro Fire Station and warned the Fire Service about its dilapidated state, firefighters yesterday closed and abandoned the station indefinitely.
When Guardian Media visited the area before the closure yesterday, there were several fire officers on the compound. All declined to speak, saying they were not authorised to do so.
There were also several fire service vehicles on the compound, including a pick-up, an ambulance and a fire truck. An air conditioning unit was seen in the bed of the pick-up, while there was a water pump among other items in the ambulance. Several men, not in uniform, were seen securing the main doorway with power tools.
About half an hour later, all the officers left and the gate was secured with pieces of wire.
Fire Services Association Second Division president Keone Guy later told Guardian Media a decision was taken on October 28 to vacate the fire station. He said after the OSH report, the Fire Service was given time to fix the issues identified.
“That did not take place. The officers, however, continued to occupy in good faith hoping that the concerns would have been addressed,” Guy said.
“But the reality is that the station needs to be rebuilt; it needs to be broken down, it would have served its life and we have reports from the Ministry of Works and Infrastructure engineers indicating just as much,” he added.
Guardian Media was informed that on October 22, a cleaner from the Ministry of Labour assigned to the station was injured when her foot went through the wooden floor inside the building. The woman was taken to the Mayaro Health Facility, where she was treated and discharged.
In the interim report to the Assistant Chief Fire Officer on the incident, the officer in charge of the station wrote, “Direct instructions were issued to FSSO Harriot to immediately cordon off and physically isolate the compromised corridor area using safety cones and high-visibility barrier tape to prevent secondary injury or further structural collapse.”
Days later, on October 26, the association’s assistant secretary, South, Ancel Lemessy, wrote to the OSHA chief inspector, asking for an urgent investigation into the issues at the fire station.
“I request an urgent inspection and investigation of conditions at Rio Claro Fire Station and immediate measures to protect firefighters, ancillary staff and other persons using the premises. The attached records show that structural concerns preceded an actual flooring failure and injury. They also document defects affecting the safety, welfare and dignity of female personnel,” Lemessy wrote.
His letter also raised several other issues, including allegations that a female fire officer was instructed to “lock the door” and use a male toilet when she complained that the female toilet was not working. Lemessy said the female officer was eventually sent home for the day.
“I consider this response haphazard and inadequate. A direction to lock the male washroom door did not establish that suitable alternative facilities, privacy, safe access and arrangements for all personnel had been assessed,” he wrote.
Also contacted yesterday, Assistant Chief Fire Officer Lalchan Arjoon told Guardian Media that a building to temporarily house the fire station in Rio Claro has been identified and a decision should be made sometime in the coming days.
“And they said that it may have been the building identified for a URP office,” Arjoon said.
“When we look at it, yes, there will be some modification to be able to house the fire station if it is being granted, if it’s being used. That still has to be confirmed as soon as we can,” he added.
He acknowledged that the public may be concerned about slow response times.
Arjoon said a fire tender and fire officers were on standby at the Mayaro Fire Station to respond to any emergencies in Rio Claro.
“But I wanted to assure the members of the public that we have a response from Mayaro, yes, it may take a little longer time, but there is a response.”
Arjoon said the Fire Service administration has been advocating for some time for a new fire station in Rio Claro.
“When I spoke to my development section, they told me that they have had the Rio Claro Fire Station earmarked (for reconstruction), but that may come up, I think, in 2027 or 2028, based on the advice they gave me. So yes, they are planning, they want to get a new station built there,” Arjoon said.
Guardian Media sent questions to Homeland Security Minister Roger Alexander on the station’s closure, but up until press time, there was no response.
Residents left in dark by sudden closure
In Rio Claro yesterday, several people who spoke to Guardian Media expressed surprise that the station had been closed.
Narine Mahabir, who works at the nearby Rio Claro Market, said he was told the station had been closed on Friday but he didn’t believe it.
“I feel nobody knows nothing about that,” Mahabir said.
He said between 1995 and 2000, efforts were being made to repair the fire station.
“No government don’t continue what another government was doing … since Panday was in power that fire station was fixing. If you notice, the back of the fire station is concrete, is the front part was to do, and that remain just so, nobody continue it,” he said.
Mahabir said if there is a major fire in Rio Claro in the near future, the results could be disastrous.
“If you coming from Mayaro, that’s 14 miles, if you coming from Princes Town, that’s 18 miles, that time you done gone already.”
Resident Margaret Fuentes said she too did not know of the closure. She said it was both a good and bad thing.
“I’ll be glad that we get a new one like Mayaro … but look where they gone, Mayaro. How fast they will come up here in an emergency? We will have to get bucket brigade,” she said.
Andrew Granthum called for the Fire Service to get its act together, saying the people of Rio Claro would be in danger without a functioning fire station.
