JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Monday, February 17, 2025

Hinds: Water not an issue in response to fire at MP Morris-Julian’s home

by

31 days ago
20250117

Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Fitzger­ald Hinds has again re­in­forced Gov­ern­ment’s po­si­tion that wa­ter avail­abil­i­ty was not a fac­tor in the T&T Fire Ser­vice’s (TTFS) re­sponse to the fire that trag­i­cal­ly claimed the lives of D’Abadie/O’Meara MP Lisa Mor­ris-Ju­lian, her son Je­si­ah, six, and daugh­ter Xi­anne, 25, on De­cem­ber 16.

Hinds con­firmed re­ceiv­ing the fi­nal re­port on the in­ci­dent from for­mer chief fire of­fi­cer Roo­sevelt Bruce last Fri­day dur­ing a morn­ing TV pro­gramme yes­ter­day. Bruce’s team was re­spon­si­ble for prob­ing the TTFS re­sponse to the in­ci­dent.

While he would not go in­to the ma­jor de­tails of the re­port, say­ing it was still un­der re­view by the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil, Hinds con­firmed, “I can say con­fi­dent­ly that wa­ter was not the is­sue in this tragedy.”

While ac­knowl­edg­ing that wa­ter chal­lenges have ex­ist­ed in Trinidad and To­ba­go in the past, Hinds as­sured, “The Min­istry of Pub­lic Util­i­ties has made sig­nif­i­cant strides in ad­dress­ing wa­ter is­sues na­tion­wide. In this in­stance, how­ev­er, wa­ter avail­abil­i­ty did not hin­der the Fire Ser­vice’s re­sponse.”

Mor­ris-Ju­lian and her chil­dren died from smoke in­hala­tion. The in­ves­ti­ga­tion has ruled out foul play.

Hinds con­firmed that the Fire Ser­vice had been at­tend­ing an­oth­er fire at Manuel Con­go at the time of the in­ci­dent, which de­layed their re­sponse.

He as­sured the pub­lic that Gov­ern­ment is com­mit­ted to ad­dress­ing the short­com­ings iden­ti­fied in the re­port. “This tragedy has caused im­mense sor­row and pub­lic dis­qui­et,” he said.

“We owe it to the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go to un­cov­er the facts and ad­dress the de­fi­cien­cies in our emer­gency re­sponse sys­tems.”

Con­tact­ed for com­ment yes­ter­day, Act­ing Chief Fire Of­fi­cer Andy Hutchin­son clar­i­fied that while wa­ter was not an is­sue, hy­drant pres­sure was low.

“We had suf­fi­cient wa­ter to fight the fire,” Hutchin­son said, adding, “The low hy­drant pres­sure was some­thing we not­ed and re­port­ed. How­ev­er, this did not im­pact our abil­i­ty to re­spond ef­fec­tive­ly.”

Hutchin­son ex­plained that this was high­light­ed in the Fire Ser­vice’s me­dia re­lease and sup­port­ed by op­er­a­tional logs from the Ari­ma Fire Sta­tion, which is a stone’s throw away from the Far­fan Street, Ari­ma home of Mor­ris- Ju­lian.

Hutchin­son de­clined to com­ment fur­ther un­til hear­ing the re­port’s con­tents when it is made pub­lic.

Al­so con­tact­ed yes­ter­day, Fire Of­fi­cers As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent Keon Guy re­it­er­at­ed the long-stand­ing con­cerns about in­ad­e­quate re­sources with­in the TTFS. “The Fire Ser­vice has been un­der-re­sourced for years, and this has im­pact­ed our abil­i­ty to ef­fec­tive­ly car­ry out our du­ties,” Guy said.

He em­pha­sised that while the of­fi­cers at the scene were able to over­come wa­ter-re­lat­ed chal­lenges, the re­al is­sue lay in the in­ad­e­qua­cies of fire pro­tec­tion in Ari­ma and oth­er ar­eas.

“The lack of ad­e­quate fire pro­tec­tion in Ari­ma was a sig­nif­i­cant con­tribut­ing fac­tor to this tragedy,” Guy said.

Guy al­so crit­i­cised the Gov­ern­ment for wait­ing un­til a tragedy of this mag­ni­tude to act.

“It is un­for­tu­nate that it took the deaths of MP Mor­ris-Ju­lian and her chil­dren for the Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty to launch an in­quiry and con­duct a thor­ough analy­sis of the Fire Ser­vice,” he said.

When asked if he had any in­for­ma­tion about pend­ing sus­pen­sions re­sult­ing from the re­port’s find­ings, Guy stressed that dis­ci­pli­nary ac­tion, if war­rant­ed, would fall un­der the purview of the Pub­lic Ser­vice Com­mis­sion (PSC).

“The Bruce in­ves­ti­ga­tors do not have the au­thor­i­ty to make such de­ter­mi­na­tions. If there is a case for dis­ci­pli­nary ac­tion, it would need to be han­dled by the com­mis­sion,” he said.

He re­it­er­at­ed the as­so­ci­a­tion’s hope that the tragedy would prompt long-over­due in­vest­ments in the Fire Ser­vice.

“We wel­come the at­ten­tion on the Fire Ser­vice and hope this re­sults in the re­sources and sup­port we need to up­hold our man­date to pro­tect the pub­lic,” Guy said.


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored