St Ann, St Mary to get majority of new firefighters

With the Jamaica Fire Brigade (JFB) graduating 83 new recruits on Saturday, the parishes of St Ann and St Mary, which are experiencing a shortage of firefighters, will benefit most in terms of placement.

Commissioner of the JFB, Stewart Beckford, said while all 34 fire stations will get new firefighters, the two parishes will be allocated a larger number.

“Most of the recruits will be going into St Ann and St Mary given the shortages that they would have had in the past, so those two divisions are going to be well served by this intake,” Stewart told The Gleaner.

He said, however, that the budget has been approved for the JFB to train another 100 recruits for the fire service.

Beckford said two fire stations, one in each of the parishes, have also been earmarked for improvement works.

“This year, we’re going to be doing work at Brown’s Town (St Ann), remodelling the station in Annotto Bay (St Mary), which is in a not so much of a good condition because the men and women there have complained for many years, and we’ve heard their cries, and so we will be turning our attention to that station for this financial year.”

Beckford explained: “There is no doubt that there are some stations that are in need of attention, but it’s an ongoing process, and the truth is that like with any organisation, the Jamaica Fire Brigade gets its funding from central Government, and the country is still in a pandemic where Government was forced to reallocate money to treat with the emerging threat posed by the coronavirus and that, of course, would have impacted all agencies across the country.”