JOSETTE DEONANAN and ENRIQUE RUPERT
"I HAVE made up my mind, the next fire call I go on and we are once more put into a position where we do not have these necessary instruments, John Public is going to die.”
This was the warning from acting Fire Sub Officer (FSO) Patrick Anderson Dick Jnr.
In an interview with Newsday on Wednesday, Dick said he led the crew of six firemen from the Siparia Fire Station in their response to a fire on Easter Monday in Zion Hill, Penal.
When they arrived at the burning house at 9.45 am, Dick said neighbours told them a woman and her baby who lived in the house were unaccounted for. Dick said his crew was met with a cloud of thick, black smoke.
Despite not having the proper personal protective equipment (PPE) – including breathing apparatus – one of the officers ran into the burning house to try to find mother and child. After a few minutes, this officer began calling out “in despair."
“When you hear one of your officers calling out in utter despair and you cannot do anything, I have to go in and rescue him,” Dick said.
“It was horrible to see this young man literally dying, and you can see it on his face, but you have to save the community. It is hard.”
It was only after the officer collapsed and was taken out of the burning house, that the crew learned the woman and her baby were not in the burning house, but at a neighbour’s home.
All six officers were taken to San Fernando General Hospital, where they were treated for acute smoke inhalation, and are now on medical leave.
Dick said in future, he will not be putting the lives of his crew at risk, when they have not been provided with the proper PPE to carry out rescues.
“I am not losing any one of my crew,” he vowed.
He said they are all hard workers and he cares about their well-being.
“One of the officers is a young man who got married last year and is now trying to start a family. The only female on the crew works like a man, she is beautiful and she works. All of my crew are hard workers.”
He said the long-term effect of fire-fighting has sent many an officer to an early grave.
“Most firemen don’t live to see 70. Most die after five years of leaving the service. Most died from cancer,” he claimed. He appealed for adequate PPE for fire officers, saying, “Just give us the basics we are asking for.”
ONLY 10 BREATHING APPARATUS KITS IN TT
Fire Service Association president Keone Guy confirmed his membership’s position saying several officers are now willing to walk away from their jobs after Monday’s incident in Penal.
At a press conference at the union’s head office in Barataria on Wednesday, Guy said the lack of breathing equipment and other PPE has been an ongoing and vexing issue.
“It (the breathing apparatus) is the only thing that allows an officer to safely enter a burning building to rescue people. Without it, operational abilities are critically hampered.”
[caption id="attachment_1074928" align="alignnone" width="1024"] MY POINT IS: Keone Guy, president of the Fire Service Association,dur
