In moving towards a more modern and efficient fire department, Jamaica cannot operate like it is business as usual, according to state minister with responsibility for local government in the Office of the Prime Minister, Robert Montague.

"The Jamaica Fire Brigade and its counterparts across the Caribbean are cognisant that this conference will seek to employ not only strategic measures to achieve our goals, but seek to develop practices and share experiences that are not necessarily the conventional ways of doing things," he charged at the eighth annual conference of the Caribbean Association of Fire Chiefs (CAFC) at the Hilton's Rose Hall Resort and Spa on Monday.

He further added that in employing unconventional measures in getting the job as a firefighter and fire chief done, the matter of leadership has to play an important role when it counts and with little or no loss of life.

"Leadership is about resilience and has to do with having the inner strength to handle adversity whether personally or in your everyday leadership capacity as fire chiefs," he explained.

Networking, partnerships

The CAFC, which seeks to administer focus-based training and education, is a forum where stakeholders can offer vendor networking and forge new partnerships. The conference started Monday and will end tomorrow.

Montague explained that while citizens may take for granted the services of the fire department, the role of a firefighter is not only to hop on a truck and race to the scene of a disaster. He noted that it was "important that the idea of disaster prevention be at the forefront of all our minds, and we must strengthen the commitment to educate even more of our citizens about their role in disaster prevention".