Min­is­ter of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Roger Alexan­der made a site vis­it to Tor­rib Trace, Princes Town where gov­ern­ment pro­pos­es to house a tem­po­rary fire sta­tion.

The vis­it fol­lows the clo­sure of the pre­vi­ous Princes Town Fire Sta­tion in 2024. That sta­tion, which served the com­mu­ni­ty for over 75 years, was deemed struc­tural­ly un­safe by the Ar­chi­tec­tur­al and De­sign En­gi­neer­ing Branch of the Min­istry of Works and Trans­port and rec­om­mend­ed for de­mo­li­tion and re­con­struc­tion.

The Min­istry is eval­u­at­ing an ex­ist­ing build­ing at Tor­rib Trace to serve as a tem­po­rary op­er­a­tional fire sta­tion and train­ing fa­cil­i­ty for fire of­fi­cers in the south­ern di­vi­sion.

“This is not just about re­plac­ing bricks and mor­tar,” said Min­is­ter Alexan­der. “This is about rapid­ly restor­ing crit­i­cal fire and emer­gency ser­vices to the Princes Town area while build­ing a stronger, more re­silient sys­tem. The fa­cil­i­ty at Tor­rib Trace will serve our im­me­di­ate op­er­a­tional needs and help build long-term ca­pac­i­ty through on­go­ing train­ing and de­vel­op­ment.”

The vis­it comes af­ter the tem­po­rary clo­sure of the San Juan Fire Sta­tion af­ter part of the ceil­ing col­lapsed, slight­ly in­jur­ing a fire of­fi­cer. 

The Min­istry of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty says it will un­der­take a com­pre­hen­sive au­dit of all fire sta­tions and emer­gency fa­cil­i­ties across the coun­try, with a fo­cus on struc­tur­al in­tegri­ty, safe­ty, and ser­vice­abil­i­ty. A na­tion­al rou­tine main­te­nance pro­gramme will al­so be im­ple­ment­ed.

“These up­grades are crit­i­cal, not on­ly to pro­tect the lives and safe­ty of our cit­i­zens, but to safe­guard the well-be­ing of the brave men and women who serve,” Alexan­der said. “We are build­ing for the fu­ture: mod­ern fa­cil­i­ties, equipped with ad­vanced re­sources and backed by proac­tive main­te­nance and over­sight.”