General Secretary of the Dominica Public Service Union, Thomas Letang, is calling for something to be done urgently about what he has described as the “inhumane living conditions” of fire officers in Dominica.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday morning Letang said that he is disappointed in the responses from the authorities in regards to addressing these conditions.
Letang pointed to the Portsmouth Fire Station, where he said officers are unable to sleep in the rooms because of rat infestation.
“They are not able to have a bath inside so they are bathing outside,” he said. “When we spoke to the whole issue of inhumane conditions, it appeared that some people were annoyed by the term that we used. We maintained the fact that not too long ago the fire officers at Melville hall had to leave work at 2 o’clock in the morning and when we speak on inhumane hours people take issues with that saying that the law provides for them to work on 24-hour shifts.”
He noted that Dominica’s Chief Fire Officer, Josiah Dupuis, has been trying his best to address the situation but at present there is not much that he can do.
“We made mention of the fact that we were very disappointed with them because they gave no time frame within which they would have corrected these events,” he stated. “The guys have no fans, they have no breathing apparatus… so if there is a fire you cannot be confident that the fire will be put out because it is not right that they push themselves in a fire without the proper apparatus especially depending on the origin of that fire. So when you see officers come around and they are going to fight a fire bear in mind that they are at risk and are not properly protected.”
Letang drew reference to a situation at the Grandbay Fire Station where the officers do not have proper transportation.
“In Grandbay they have a little van that can only carry two people, so if you have a fire somewhere in Tete Morne or Petite Savanne you have no guarantee that they can do anything much for you. Because it means only two of them can travel unless one of the officers have his own private vehicle that they can use or if an ambulance is available that they can use,” he stated.
Letang is now calling on the authorities to do something urgently to arrest the situation.
“The authorities keep saying that the matter is being addressed but we have been hearing that for the longest while what we want to see is something concrete being done to arrest the situation,” he stated.
Chief Fire Officer Dupuis, speaking at a ceremony on Tuesday to welcome Joselyn Prince back on the job, agreed that fire officers are lacking some of the necessary apparatus that is needed to do their job efficiently.
“We can also speak to some of the capacity issues that we have, lack of certain equipment that is really critical when it comes to doing the search and rescue and some of the basic things that is expected of fire officers,” he stated.
The Chief added that although the public would like to see major improvements in the fire service, such as the introduction of helicopters as a means of transportation there are still many more intricate and important things that is required.
He also noted that the public can assist in making their tasks at saving life simpler by responding quickly to emergencies.
“Receiving information is one of the troubling areas for emergency organisations on this island,” hes stated. “There are many instances where we have accidents and people who are observers or witnesses still have difficulty in reporting as quickly as they can as opposed to taking pictures or being naturally curious.”
Dupuis also noted that heavy traffic and not being allowed to move as swiftly through traffic is another troublesome area.
Take a page from Your New President in His past incarnation and shut the airport down while the PM is out of the Estate!
That should get some attention! if it does not then close it for a week!
Mr. Savarin did more than that and He never was arrested or answered in a court.
Reading this and seeing for yourself is 2 different things, our Fire Officers deserve more respect, the things they have to do and encounter daily an average person would not be able to, yet we expect them to perform with lil or no resources under terrible conditions and a Chief that just doesn’t care. Theses Officers work 24 hrs on 24 hrs off which means that they spend just as much time on the job as the do at home, yet they have to endure living under deplorable conditions that one wouldn’t even subject their pet too. They are the lifeline of our nation, and is as if the authorities just not seeing how important they are. Imagine u sick and u call an ambulance and its down or they come for u and basic first aid items are not available, or there’s a fire and firemen cannot attack the fire because the don’t have the necessary suiting to do so, and fighting the fire would mean suicide on their part. when the alarm goes down, they don’t think, they jump into action and head to the scene, so why is it that when they make request for their comfort they cannot receive the same treatment?? every station should be supplied with adequate breathing apparatus, bunker suits, first aid supplies and personnel, and is they have to leave their families and homes to come stand guard for our safety, what is a fan to give them to sleep comfortable at night or to bear the heat during the day?? have dem man bathing outside like is lil children, rat infestation exposing em to deadly diseases like leptospirosis, some don’t even have a proper bed to sleep on, or a sanitary kitchen to cook in. people that there not animals. show our Fire Officers some respect or be prepared for serious PROTEST!!! cuz it seems is dat alone that working in de country dem days dere.
Yes Latang….What about the NURSES??? I wish you could stand for Nurses too…. Guess it is the next step….
Too many labourite nurses that are more dedicated to the PM than the interest of their Families.They carrying tales like little Girls meantime they working for peanuts. If Savarin was there he would shut the hospital down!
i am a fire officer and it hurts, i cannot even take care of my family the way i used too, my wife want to live because, she is saying when will the salary go up, to assist in providing a little more for the family. i am never home have to travel so far everyday on the same money cannot take a good rest. fire officer are even getting mad. it getting worst on the job. Charles Savarin is the biggest enemy of fire officers, he resigned and never took care of these important officers,
shame
I suppose it isn’t necessary for fire officers to know proper English. Sorry for your plight though
Axe the Chinese for some brand new second hand fire-fighting vehicles…
A rat infestation means someone is not keeping their surroundings clean
I must say that the firemen in dominica have been doin a good job given the conditions and equipment they are given, they risk their lives everyday and i think that a lot more gratitude must be shown to them, give them a better insurance policy, allowances for the extra long hours and also the distances they have to travel to get to work every day. I see now alot of attention is given to joslen prince, but i hope the right attention will be given to him instead of the fake media attention, he lives at grand fond and has to travel to roseau every day. Nothing is given to help alleviate the pressure and strain on their pockets. there are thosewho have to live roseau to go to portsmouth, marigot,granbay, those who travel from marigot to st.joe, roseau portsmouth etc, with nothing to help them. just try to imagine d.a without a fire service, no ambulance for those of us who find it more convinient or cheap to call an ambulance to transport us to the hospital when we have a headache instead of taking a bus or driving our vehicles. overseas a fee is charged for use of ambulance and this fee goes into purchasing equipment and also provide training for the men but here we abuse them and still criticise them when they are working with what they are given (both equipment and training wise). We focus our energies on the wrong things in this country, we spend so much time lately arguing about a president, whoever it is, tht doesnt really care about us, instead, let us take the airwaves and demand more from these politicians in terms of our well being our safety, education,health etc…
Always wondered who was listening to these guys. Hope the administration is listening now. Thanks for the closure. We know who to blame anyway.
fire officers in d.a have been working under these inhumane conditions for a long while, from the freedom era to the workers era and now the labour and all of them have cast a blind eye to their concerns and their well being and i must say that the officers are partly to blame because they have stood silent for too long and have failed to show these politicians their importance and their strength, they should stand as a united force to get what they want instead of just the fire chief trying on his own, they need to stand behind him and he behind them. When we talk of security in dominica we tend to think of police fighting crime so we equipt them every year and sometimes twice a year with new vehicles and more personnel but we seem to forget about the fire officers. the amount of damage tht can be caused by fire is extensive, just look at what happens every year in america especially carlifornia, fire poses a bigger threat than thief cause after a fire there’s nothing to recover, the health of your population is also very important a sick human resource is a sick economy and sick country we really need to review our priorities. The fire service is also understaffed, there are just over a hundred firemen in d.a. There are just about 7 or 8 fire stations in d.a and two out of tht amount only offers ambulance service, they have no fire coverage, lets take for example the st. joseph fire station which only has about four or five men on one shift and has to cover fro tarreau to cloihaut and sometimes even as far as pond casse while u have a police station in alomst every village in that same area and still we expectso much from these firemen already they have to work 24 hour shifts with no form of monetary or other compensation for their extra time, tht is the only department in govt service who works these long hours at once
right now Dominica come a kind of a way dere, people not even interested in helping out dere brother man. they more interested in taking photos to post on Facebook and DNO.
So instead of talking dirty politics, let us address the serious situation taking place with our fire dept, our police dept and other areas of society. This is not the problems one envisions when you talk about ‘next level’
So whether it is the Permanent Secretary, or the Prime Minister, someone has to be accountable for whats going on with these fire officers, cuz Lord knows these are the people Dominicans depend on for help in our greatest need.
I don’t find dupuis if trying hard enough it’s just mouth talk to cover up he gets a comfortable salary while the other fire fighters get from hand mouth
letang is not fire men alone the conditions people have to deal with to get to make a daily bread its apalling.
what about the police men at veille case police station who cannot sleep at night because worms. every night these men beds has all kind of worms.
why does the station have worms….is it a cleaning problem or what because if your bed have worms am to think its because of maggots and that is because of how they handle their garbage so think again….
put the fire officers in the 23 million dollar state house….
also if you sick and cannot get treated at pmh, juss go on the front steps of the 23 million dollar state house….
cannot find work, go on the steps of the state house….
Labourrrrrrr
What about presenting a real solution? I am so sick of the crap being spouted by DNO commenters.
so sad hmmm…. this is a trend in this country ple want workers to perform their task under all sorts of inhumane conditions.. they never give you what you need to do your work effectively then they say your incompetent.