Sascha Wil­son

Se­nior Re­porter

sascha.wil­son@guardian.co.tt

Gov­ern­ment’s con­sid­er­a­tion of a fire sta­tion for Moru­ga has brought a sense of re­lief to res­i­dents, who say a faster emer­gency re­sponse could save lives and prop­er­ty.

Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der, speak­ing on Wednes­day at the open­ing of the Princes Town Fire Sta­tion, said the Gov­ern­ment was con­sid­er­ing the pro­pos­al, but it was still in its ear­ly stages.

There are sev­er­al com­mu­ni­ties in Moru­ga, with the far­thest es­ti­mat­ed to be more than 30 kilo­me­tres from Princes Town. Res­i­dents say they have ex­pe­ri­enced first-hand the dev­as­ta­tion that dis­tance can cause when fires oc­cur.

Sev­en­ty-four-year-old Basse Terre res­i­dent Roop Esa­hack told Guardian Me­dia that he lost his wife and his home in a fire. He now sleeps in his car.

Esa­hack be­lieves his wife, whose legs had been am­pu­tat­ed be­cause of di­a­betes, could have sur­vived if fire­fight­ers had been clos­er.

“They would ah be clos­er and they would ah reach faster, prob­a­bly ah could ah save she,” he said.

Since the fire, Esa­hack said he was still wait­ing for as­sis­tance.

An­oth­er res­i­dent, Hei­di McIn­tyre, who is vi­su­al­ly im­paired, al­so lost her home in a 2019 fire.

She said the blaze start­ed around 7 pm, but by 10 pm, they were still wait­ing for as­sis­tance. The en­tire house was even­tu­al­ly gut­ted, leav­ing McIn­tyre and ten oth­er rel­a­tives home­less.

“We des­per­ate­ly need a fire sta­tion in Moru­ga,” she said, adding that it would bring a sense of re­lief to res­i­dents.

Veg­etable ven­dor Fran­cois “Franko” Ayres said a fire sta­tion was al­so crit­i­cal in the event of ac­ci­dents.

“Not on­ly for fire, but some­times we do have ac­ci­dent ... and if they are that far away peo­ple could die,” he said.

He was hope­ful, how­ev­er, that the pro­pos­al would soon be­come a re­al­i­ty.

“I think every­body will wel­come hav­ing a fire sta­tion. I hope this will ma­te­ri­alise, we can have it. So, I hope those in charge of that will put it high on their agen­da.”

An­ic­ka Bap­tiste, own­er of Coun­try Style Food at Basse Terre Vil­lage, al­so sup­ports the pro­pos­al, say­ing a sta­tion could help save lives and prop­er­ty in sur­round­ing com­mu­ni­ties.

“I felt great when I heard it be­cause it is some­thing that is need­ed in the area be­cause we had nu­mer­ous fires took place near­by and if we had it, it could have saved lives,” she said.

Bap­tiste said the fa­cil­i­ty should be es­tab­lished in the Grand Chemin area, which she be­lieves is cen­tral­ly lo­cat­ed to serve sur­round­ing com­mu­ni­ties.

Her­ra­man Soogram­s­ingh, 61, said the re­sponse time was too long be­cause of the dis­tance.

“We need a sta­tion here. If is Gran Chemin they want to put it, so that every­body—all Marac, Gran Chemin, all about the place—could get a fa­cil­i­ty, to get ah help.”

The min­is­ter could not give a time­line for when the sta­tion could be built.

Res­i­dents are hop­ing, how­ev­er, that the pro­pos­al be­comes a re­al­i­ty soon, say­ing quick­er ac­cess to emer­gency ser­vices could make a crit­i­cal dif­fer­ence when lives and prop­er­ty are at risk.