Five more fire trucks

Erica Virtue, Staff Reporter

THE fleet of trucks available to the Jamaica Fire Service will be increased by five by the coming week-end if they are cleared from the wharves.

The vehicles, which were donated by the Japanese Government, were said to be on the wharves for the last three weeks, without any indications of when they would be cleared. Firemen were said to have been disgruntled over the long time it was taking to clear the trucks, as the Local Government, Youth and Community Development Ministry had not paid the $500,000 which was needed to clear them from the wharves.

However, Minister Arnold Bertram said last week that a cheque for just over $500,000 was handed over to the Fire Service on June 1.

"The trucks will be in the fleet within the next two weeks or as soon as they are cleared," Minister Bertram told The Sunday Gleaner on Wednesday.

He said the Ministry made preparation to provide the sum needed to clear the vehicles as soon as it received correspondence from the Fire Service. Asked if the Ministry had turned down a line of credit to purchase 15 more vehicles for the Fire Service, Minister Bertram said, he was not interested in getting anymore vehicles from Japan under the current agreement.

"Any other loans that are available from the Japanese Government will be used to purchase equipment, not trucks," he said, without explaining why he would not take anymore trucks from Japan.

Head of Jamaica Fire Service, Major George Benson, said, the five new vehicles will bring the number of trucks available to the service to 53.

"However, it must be understood that all 53 trucks are not operating at 100 per cent capacity. This is because we are not able to take out a truck for a day and service it as we would want to," Major Benson said on Thursday.

He also said the service was still short of important equipment which are needed at the scene of a fire, including equipment to cut concrete and metals.

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