For the sec­ond time in as many months, fire broke out in­side the Mon Re­pos Fire Head­quar­ters, prompt­ing of­fi­cers to call for an im­me­di­ate rewiring of the en­tire build­ing.

Through­out Sun­day night and for most of the day on Mon­day, the head­quar­ters, sit­u­at­ed at the San Fer­nan­do Bye-Pass re­mained with­out an elec­tric­i­ty sup­ply.

Fire of­fi­cers said the heat was un­bear­able in the fa­cil­i­ty, adding that the toi­lets were dirty as the wa­ter pumps were dys­func­tion­al.

The fire start­ed around 6:20 pm, in an elec­tri­cal me­tre in­side the en­gi­neer­ing sec­tion.

The of­fi­cers used a fire ex­tin­guish­er to quick­ly bring the fire un­der con­trol and a T&TEC crew lat­er ar­rived and took away the me­tre.

A gen­er­a­tor was sub­se­quent­ly brought in to pow­er the lights.

A source who re­quest­ed anonymi­ty said two weeks ago, the Elec­tri­cal In­spec­torate de­clared the wiring un­safe and gave the T&T Fire Ser­vice 14 days to rec­ti­fy the prob­lems. "Last month there was smoke com­ing from the wiring and this prompt­ed us to call in the in­spec­torate," the source said.

The point of en­trance ca­ble was changed along with the me­tre base.

How­ev­er, when checked the elec­tri­cal changes were giv­en a failed grade and the T&T Fire Ser­vices were giv­en some more time to do fur­ther work.

The build­ing is usu­al­ly oc­cu­pied by al­most 100 peo­ple dur­ing the day and 30 plus at nights.

Fire-fight­ers who were in­ter­viewed said since the fire, their work con­di­tions have been de­plorable.

"We need the build­ing rewired be­cause this is not safe. "We need a prop­er elec­tric­i­ty sup­ply to fill Breath­ing Ap­pa­ra­tus cylin­ders and that pulls a lot of cur­rent.

The gas pumps al­so pulls a lot of cur­rent when fu­elling the ve­hi­cles as well as the com­pres­sor. The en­tire build­ing is now air-con­di­tioned and the old elec­tri­cal wiring can­not take that load," the source said.

The of­fi­cers al­so called for the elec­tri­cal pan­els to be changed to ac­com­mo­date the ad­di­tion­al elec­tri­cal load adding that if it was not fixed prop­er­ly then a fire could raze the fire sta­tion.

Apart from the fire haz­ards, of­fi­cers al­so called for bet­ter main­te­nance of fire ap­pli­ances and oth­er ve­hi­cles.

"Many of the ve­hi­cles used by fire of­fi­cers have been giv­en a failed grade by the li­cens­ing de­part­ment. There are good ve­hi­cles which need sim­ple parts like a fil­ter or a clutch which are be­ing parked up in the sta­tions and left to rot," the source said.

In Rio Claro and Point Fortin sta­tions, the fire ap­pli­ances have failed in­spec­tions yet they are be­ing used. This is a haz­ard to of­fi­cers. In Mon Re­pos there are four tankers be­ing left in a state of dis­re­pair. One is used for ex­treme emer­gen­cies de­spite de­fects. The tankers car­ry wa­ter 10,000 litres and above," the source added.

He ex­plained that one of the four tankers leaks wa­ter and a portable pump is used to get wa­ter out be­cause the tanker's pump is de­fec­tive. The sew­er sys­tem in­side the Mon Re­pos sta­tion is al­so faulty.

"A fleet of BT 50 ve­hi­cles bought for the Fire Ser­vices re­cent­ly are break­ing down be­cause of poor main­te­nance," the se­nior source added.

Of­fi­cers al­so said they were be­ing asked to work in Petrotrin's re­fin­ery but they were not be­ing out­fit­ted with ther­mo­foil fire suits which keep out the heat. He al­so ex­plained that new­ly re­cruit­ed fire of­fi­cers were not be­ing giv­en prop­er work­ing gear.

A What­sapp mes­sage was sent yes­ter­day to Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Stu­art Young ask­ing for a com­ment but al­though the mes­sage was read, no re­sponse was forth­com­ing.

Pres­i­dent of the T&T Fire Ser­vice As­so­ci­a­tion Leo Ramkissoon al­so did not an­swer his cell­phone and could not be reached for com­ment.