RHON­DOR DOWLAT  

Se­nior Re­porter 

rhon­dor.dowlat@guardian.co.tt 

The Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty has con­firmed re­ceiv­ing the fi­nal re­port on the trag­ic fire that claimed the lives of Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment and Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion, Lisa Mor­ris-Ju­lian, 48, her 25-year-old daugh­ter Xi­anne, and six-year-old son Je­si­ah. 

The in­ci­dent oc­curred at their Far­fan Street, Ari­ma, home on De­cem­ber 16, 2024.

In a re­lease is­sued by the min­istry on Wednes­day, Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Fitzger­ald Hinds re­ceived the com­pre­hen­sive re­port on Fri­day at the Min­istry’s Port of Spain of­fice. 

The in­ves­ti­ga­tion was con­duct­ed by a three-mem­ber com­mit­tee chaired by for­mer Chief Fire Of­fi­cer Roo­sevelt Bruce. The com­mit­tee al­so in­clud­ed Health, Safe­ty, Se­cu­ri­ty, and En­vi­ron­ment (HSSE) Spe­cial­ist Curt Cadet and At­tor­ney at Law Ash­tee Ma­habir from the Of­fice of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al.

The com­mit­tee’s man­date was to in­ves­ti­gate the Fire Ser­vice’s re­sponse to the in­ci­dent, fo­cus­ing on re­sponse times, wa­ter re­source avail­abil­i­ty, and op­er­a­tional logs from the Ari­ma and Tu­na­puna Fire Sta­tions. 

Pub­lic con­cerns re­gard­ing the fire’s cause and the ad­e­qua­cy of the re­sponse were al­so key ar­eas of ex­am­i­na­tion.

Min­is­ter Hinds de­scribed the com­mit­tee’s work as cru­cial in en­sur­ing trans­paren­cy and ad­dress­ing pub­lic con­cerns. “The un­for­tu­nate loss of MP Mor­ris-Ju­lian and her fam­i­ly has caused deep sor­row and pub­lic dis­qui­et. We be­lieve it is im­por­tant to un­cov­er the facts and present them to the pub­lic, es­pe­cial­ly in light of the ques­tions raised re­gard­ing the Fire Ser­vice’s han­dling of the in­ci­dent,” Hinds said.

The find­ings, along with the com­mit­tee’s rec­om­men­da­tions, will be re­viewed by the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil. The Min­istry has not yet dis­closed if or when the re­port will be made pub­lic.

Present at the han­dover were San­dra Fras­er, Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary in the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, and mem­bers of the in­ves­tiga­tive com­mit­tee.