Residents and businesses in Princes Town and surrounding communities now have quicker access to emergency fire services, following the reopening of the Princes Town Fire Station on Wednesday.
The station serves a coverage area of approximately 620 square kilometres, encompassing 56 communities and a population of about 118,000 residents, providing an important emergency response presence across South Trinidad.
There was a celebratory atmosphere as fire officers, government officials and residents gathered to mark the reopening of the station, restoring a local operational fire service to the area after more than two years.
Minister of Homeland Security Roger Alexander revealed that the temporary facility was established at a cost of just under TT$230,000, praising members of the T&T Fire Service for their hands-on role in transforming the building into an operational station.
“It’s not a permanent structure. This was the old URP building, and, listen, the fire officers said, ‘You know what, we can do something with this to serve the people’. We really want to commend the officers because I understand, and I saw for myself, that they would have done the brunt of the work, you know. So the fire service did the brunt of the work.”
The Minister noted that while the temporary station is now operational, a final decision is yet to be made on a permanent location.
He explained that geotechnical challenges at the former site remain a concern.
“It might not move from the location it is, we just need to do some extra work which will be very costly because the earth is shifting to the rear. So we don’t want to just put up something and next two years we have to move it. So we have to look at how we can fix it to get a permanent place. And if not there, we will look for somewhere else.”
Beyond Princes Town, Minister Alexander said the government is also assessing other underserved areas, with Moruga identified as a priority for expanded fire coverage.
“We are in consultation again, the Prime Minister is a concerned person. She loves to serve the people, so what she’s doing, she’s asking what can we do and ask the question if this distance is enough to really provide the type of service that we want from here to Moruga, and the fire officers said no. So we will have to do something about Moruga. Even if it’s to put a substation or something along those lines.”
On staffing and resources, the Minister said the government is working to increase the number of firefighters while continuing efforts to equip stations across the country.
“As we speak, Saturday there was exams for fire officers, and, I think, we’re looking at 200, 145 initially, recruits to join the service. We are trying to supply tenders to all fire stations. It’s an expensive, tedious task, but to get it done, we have to.”