The relocation of the Bridgetown Fire Station from Probyn Street to Prince Road, The Pine, St Michael has not prevented firefighters from responding to blazes in The City in a timely manner.
That assurance came on Wednesday from Acting Chief Fire Officer Henderson Patrick who said that for many years, authorities were concerned that the fire station was located in a low-lying area and “in the midst of high risk within The City”.
Speaking to members of the media at the site of the new Barbados Fire Service Headquarters in The Pine, he suggested that if a natural disaster were to occur in The City, the Fire Service must have the capacity to be able to respond and deal with it rather than being caught in the middle of it.
“So, the movement of the fire department from where it was located and bringing it up on the ridge away from tidal activity and away from the magnitude of risk that is located within The City is not only a benefit to the fire department, but a benefit to the business people and also to the people of Barbados,” Patrick said.
“I would say that the capacity that we now have with the station located here [at The Pine] and also the expected coming on stream of the Bridgetown Port Station provides sufficient coverage for the response area that Bridgetown is expected to cover.
“It would not be the best thing to go and add another facility back in the high-risk area when we have just moved outside the borders of that, and we have sufficient capacity that can manage the response area,” the fire chief insisted.
He recalled that one of the concerns raised when the Bridgetown Fire Station was relocated in February 2020 was how quickly the Fire Service would be able to respond to fires in The City.
However, Patrick said a test conducted in peak traffic determined that it would take between five to ten minutes for fire officials to get to and from The Pine and The City, depending on what appliances were being used.
“And that is within the range of response time that is expected for a fire station responding to structures that are involved,” he said. “So the response from here to The City area does not present an unusual challenge for the business community in The City area because the response timeframe falls within what is expected in the industry.”
However, Patrick indicated that the Fire Service responding to fires in a timely manner was just one factor that contributed to safety.
He said it was also important that business owners adhere to statutory requirements, including having fire safety mechanisms in place and facilitating the training of staff.
“Building construction is another aspect that is critical to whether a fire is able to travel rapidly from one place to another place. And, therefore, as people improve their particular facilities in conjunction with the Town and Country Planning Department, we make recommendations for people to have firewalls and to have other facilities that will reduce the spread of fire and that will increase the level of safety for people who dwell in close proximity to each other,” he said.
(AH)
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