‘Give firemen @ Beef Island a truck!’- radio show caller
The show, hosted by Doug Wheatley, was aired on ZBVI 780 AM and dealt with a number of topical issues.
“If I were the Minister tomorrow morning I would carry a truck and park it up there,” he said.
“Almost every fireman in the Virgin Islands has a licence. I would tell them, anything happen in the East End area that truck is for them to drive over the bridge and go and assist us on the mainland until the Road Town fire truck comes,” the caller said.
“Don’t tell me that ain’t a solution…there are about nine or ten firemen stationed up there and two of them could assist till the truck comes from Road Town. Isn’t that a viable solution?” he asked.
He said that fires are a serious issues and are “nothing to play with as they consume things very quickly, but you can’t have firemen sitting down there doing nothing. Give them a brand new truck and tell them that is to assist East End.”
It won't work - Fire Chief
Contacted for a comment, Chief Fire Officer Zebalon A. McLean said that it is true that East End is served from the Central Fire Station in Road Town.
“The basic problem is that the trucks have passed their useful life and are in need of replacement. We have not been given the funding to purchase new appliances at this time. So we are currently exacting repairs on existing fleets and until those repairs are completed we are going to be at the mercies of natural wear and tear,” he said.
“As for the suggestion the caller made, to have an appliance that is designed for aerodrome firefighting responding in a metropolitan area, it is simply not going to work. The fire extinguishing medium that they use is very light and would not work at all on a structure or a bush fire. Unfortunately it was simply not designed to do that,” said McLean.
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17 Responses to “‘Give firemen @ Beef Island a truck!’- radio show caller”
@Real Life. You chatting £$$%, if the airport is on fire the trucks there have to deal with that. They are there for safety precautions yes and for quick time response in any emergency but can be utilized elsewhere if needs be. The director of the Airport Authority can make that decision. One will recalled the inner harbour Fire some years ago, it was an airport Fire truck had to come and foam down the buildings to get the fire under control
This "£$% really sit and type that airport fire services can't put out a fire if the airport building is on fire? While the trucks are there mainly for airplane safety, some of them have the ability to put out regular fires so stop talking foolishness. Schups, I think I had enough internet for today. Smh!!