The Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty com­mis­sioned sev­en Util­i­ty Ve­hi­cles and 20 Dou­ble Ex­ten­sions Lad­ders for the Trinidad and To­ba­go Fire Ser­vice (TTFS). Dur­ing a brief com­mis­sion­ing cer­e­mo­ny held to­day Min­is­ter Hinds stat­ed that “the ac­qui­si­tion of these util­i­ty ve­hi­cles and lad­ders, is demon­stra­tive of this Gov­ern­ment’s com­mit­ment to pro­vide the nec­es­sary re­sources to im­prove the fire­fight­ing pre­pared­ness, re­spon­sive­ness and ca­pa­bil­i­ties of the TTFS.”

The fol­low­ing is a press re­lease from the Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty:

Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty the Ho­n­ourable Fitzger­ald Hinds M.P. has com­mis­sioned sev­en (7) Util­i­ty Ve­hi­cles and twen­ty (20) Dou­ble Ex­ten­sion Lad­ders for the Trinidad and To­ba­go Fire Ser­vice (TTFS). A brief Com­mis­sion­ing Cer­e­mo­ny was held to­day, Thurs­day March 17, 2022 at the Trinidad and To­ba­go Fire Ser­vice Head­quar­ters (North), Wright­son Road, Port of Spain.

Speak­ing at the Com­mis­sion­ing, Min­is­ter Hinds stat­ed “the ac­qui­si­tion of these util­i­ty ve­hi­cles and lad­ders, is demon­stra­tive of this Gov­ern­ment’s com­mit­ment to pro­vide the nec­es­sary re­sources to im­prove the fire­fight­ing pre­pared­ness, re­spon­sive­ness and ca­pa­bil­i­ties of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Fire Ser­vice.”

The Min­is­ter shared a num­ber of plans cur­rent­ly un­der­way for the ac­qui­si­tion of oth­er new ap­pli­ances, as well as the up­grade and en­hance­ment of Fire Ser­vice in­fra­struc­ture. Min­is­ter Hinds in­di­cat­ed that Cab­i­net has ap­proved the pur­chase of a cus­tom-built wa­ter ten­der to aug­ment the ca­pac­i­ty of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Fire Ser­vice, com­plete with a foam tank and spe­cial­ized res­cue equip­ment.

The TTFS has al­so com­menced a pro­gramme to re­pair Breath­ing Ap­pa­ra­tus Sets. The nec­es­sary spares have been ac­quired and the ex­er­cise will be com­plet­ed in phas­es. In ad­di­tion, the Trinidad and To­ba­go Fire Ser­vice has re­cent­ly added a se­ries of new fire­fight­ing equip­ment to its ar­se­nal of as­sets, in­clud­ing two hun­dred (200) lengths of 70 mil­lime­tre and three hun­dred and forty (340) lengths of 38 mil­lime­tre Lay Flat Fire Hoses. The TTFS has al­so or­dered two (2) Air­port Res­cue Fire Fight­ing Ve­hi­cles and one (1) Mo­bile Wa­ter Sys­tem which will soon be de­liv­ered.

Min­is­ter Hinds al­so took the op­por­tu­ni­ty to thank all the mem­bers of the TTFS for their con­tin­ued dili­gence and ser­vice to the coun­try, re­it­er­at­ing that fire­fight­ers put their lives on the line to save lives and prop­er­ty.

In his re­marks, Chief Fire Of­fi­cer Mr. Arnold Bris­to said the ac­qui­si­tion of these util­i­ty ve­hi­cles and lad­ders has been high­ly an­tic­i­pat­ed and is nec­es­sary for the dai­ly op­er­a­tions of the TTFS. He ex­pressed grat­i­tude to the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Ex­ec­u­tive Lead­er­ship for their sup­port in the ac­qui­si­tion process. Chief Fire Of­fi­cer Bris­to not­ed that the TTFS is re­fin­ing op­er­a­tions to en­sure con­tin­u­ous growth and de­vel­op­ment. He said ex­pan­sion, di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion and spe­cial­iza­tion with­in the or­ga­ni­za­tion’s ranks are al­ready in train, with the aim of bol­ster­ing per­for­mance “in the ser­vice of the peo­ple” of Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Al­so present at the Com­mis­sion­ing Cer­e­mo­ny were Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary (Ag.) of the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Mr. Gary Joseph; Deputy Per­ma­nent Sec­re­taries (Ag.) Ms. Di­anne George-Thomas and Ms. Denise Phillip; Deputy Chief Fire Of­fi­cer Mr. Andy Hutchin­son and oth­er Mem­bers of the TTFS Ex­ec­u­tive.

The new util­i­ty ve­hi­cles will be uti­lized through­out the North­ern, South­ern, Cen­tral and To­ba­go Di­vi­sions of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Fire Ser­vice to move per­son­nel and equip­ment in the course of per­form­ing op­er­a­tional ac­tiv­i­ties, in­clu­sive of in­spec­tions of premis­es, fire in­ves­ti­ga­tions and hy­drant pa­trols.

The ad­di­tion­al lad­ders will be used to car­ry out the core func­tion of res­cue and fire­fight­ing op­er­a­tions, par­tic­u­lar­ly as it re­lates to mul­ti-storey build­ings through­out Trinidad and To­ba­go.