— Fire Chief Edoo

THE lone fire tender in Kwakwani, Region 10, will soon be up and running after being inoperable for almost a year.

This is according to acting Fire Chief, Kalamodeen Edoo, who, on Wednesday, said that by year end, the fire tender will once again be operational and fire fighters will be fully equipped to respond to emergencies.
Edoo, during a phone call interview, explained that a report was made in the past by auxiliary staff in Kwakwani, stating that the vehicle was not working and is in need of maintenance.

A maintenance team was sent and it was revealed that some critical parts of the vehicle needed to be replaced.
“We have a water tender there but it was not working, we had our maintenance man there sometime back; we have to get some additional parts to get it fixed and we are working on that right now.”

However, Edoo said that there has been a delay in replacing these parts since they have to be outsourced.
“We are trying to locate the parts, there are parts that we have to locate and bring in from outside because we are not finding it here,” the acting Fire Chief said.

Edoo related that a weekly report is expected to be made by the auxiliary staff to update the headquarters in Georgetown; however, such reports are not made on the scheduled regular basis. This, he added, is a challenge that will soon be addressed.

“The challenge is, the auxiliary persons that we have up there, they are supposed to, on an everyday basis, start this vehicle, check this vehicle and update us on a daily basis or weekly basis.”

Meanwhile, in the interim, the fire service is depending on the public to render assistance in case of an emergency. “We have to depend on the public who have pumps, portable pumps to render some form of assistance in terms of firefighting.”

Region 10 Councillor, Mark Goring, during a routine visit to the community earlier in the week, had voiced the concerns on behalf of the residents as it relates to the inoperable fire tender.

“Residents would have complained bitterly that Kwakwani is in dire need of a fire tender, since the tender has been out of operation over a year now and most of the buildings in Kwakwani are over 50 years, and some over 100 years and they are very close together. Majority of the buildings are wood and it is a fire hazard to the community,” Goring said in a previous interview.

Goring noted that while there had not been any recent tragedies of fires, having an operational fire tender in the community will put residents’ minds at ease to know that in case of an emergency or tragedy the local authorities are fully equipped to handle same.