Fire Department criticised again for running out of water…again

However, residents in the area looking on at this morning’s fire on Simon Lamb Street have criticised the fire department for its strategy for extinguishing the blaze. Area residents told us off camera that the responding officers ran out of water and that the way they were attacking the blaze could have prevented the fire from spreading. Station Manager, Kenneth Mortis responded to those criticism today.

Kenneth Mortis, Station Supervisor, National Fire Service: “I’ll keep saying that “Unu late and unu come without water.” that will be a stigma that will stay with the fire department long after I’ve gone. It’s unfortunate we have to keep hearing that and it’s no secret, it’s no rocket science that regardless of the size of these trucks these trucks have a water tank in them. Our truck carries anywhere from 400 gallons to 1,000 gallons of water. Once that water is exhausted from the tank we need to go and find supplementary supply. To refill these trucks from a hydrant it will take fifteen minutes on a minimum average to refill and then relocate back to the fire scene. Of course while all that is happening there isn’t anything that the fire fighters on the scene can do but wait. As far as our strategic positioning today is concerned because of the magnitude of that particular fire our defensive had to be primarily semi focus on what was being burned in an effort to cool it down to allow our team to put up a defensive attack between the two structures. As you can see once that was done the damage was then contained to it’s minimum. You look at it and you wonder why we’re doing things the way we’re doing things it’s just so that we can have a clearer path as to where the fire is heading versus putting my firemen in between two buildings directly in the path of the fire travel that would then endanger the lives of my people.”