Fire Chief ACP Elvis Weaver refuted claims that firefighters arrived at a major fire without water.
At least one injury was reported when a Seaview Farm home and business was destroyed during a blaze on Saturday.
Following the fire, Parliamentary Representative for the area, Michael Browne told state media the family “called the fire tender from All Saints and on arriving on the scene, they didn’t have any water”.
However, Weaver responded on Sunday saying there is “no way in Antigua and Barbuda that a fire truck would ever arrive at a fire without water, so I just want to clear the air with that. That never happened. It will never happen and it’s very unfortunate”.
“I live very close to the where the fire was, about five minutes’ drive ten minutes’ walk from where the fire was, and I was there all morning”, Weaver added.
The Fire Chief said, “a call was sent out to APUA and when the fire truck arrived, they were waiting on APUA to come and take off the electricity. When that was done, fire operations were commenced”.
Investigation are ongoing into the fire, which is believed to have been started by an electrical fault.
According to reports, three fire trucks responded to the blaze and emptied their water trucks while fighting the flames.
Weaver also rubbished reports that claimed the trucks filled their tanks at a pond in Lightfoot.
“We don’t put pond water in our trucks. Our trucks get water from the hydrants and anywhere a hydrant is that have water that is where we are going to go”, he said.
The Fire Chief defended his department saying, “we have some of the best firefighters in the Caribbean. They are well trained, and they are very knowledgeable of their jobs”.
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HEARSAY STATEMENT – HELL OR SPELL – DEFENDER OF FAITH
Not sure what the ‘…Hell or Spell’ the ‘…Honourable Minister’ may have been under.
Certainly not something that would have been consistent with his ‘…Ministerial portfolio’ or presumptive educational status.
If what is attributed to the ‘…Education Minister,’ as repeating a ‘…Hearsay Statement,’ that is capable of being considered, at best ‘…Reckless,’ and at worst ‘…Mischievous,’ then what is?
Not sure of the intention, but certainly not helpful to;
(i) ‘…The reputation and integrity of the Fire Service; and
(ii) …Public Confidence; and
(iii) …His own administration.’
Might have to source from the ‘…Indian Continent’ through one of the ‘…nation’s most notorious citizens’ or elsewhere, and present ‘…Fire Chief Elvis Weaver,’ some ‘…E-Manuals on Fire Control and Management.’
Better yet, could influence the ‘…construction of a small Fire Station’ at ‘…Clarke’s Hill or Seaview Farm.
This is with the view to serving these ‘…small vulnerable horse/donkey carts-like narrow streets communities.’
PRESONAL EXPERIENCE:
Except a ‘…Tender inaccessible Grassfire’ that started at a place on ‘Barbuda’ called ‘…Indigo’ and headed threateningly towards the populated area of ‘Codrington,’ where;
(a) ‘…Fire officers;
(b) ….Police officers; and
(c) … Villagers’ battled the raging inferno with;
(i) …A small Fire Tender;
(ii) …Villagers’ Bucket Brigade;
(iii) …Grassfire Belts (Rubber nailed to a metal handle); and
(iv) …Two Council Backhoes,’ have not been caught in a similar situation again.
Did learn something about the phrase, ‘…Fighting Fire with Fire,’ though.
The Backhoes cleared a wide enough path through the ‘…dried grass and shrubs.’
Wittingly, then ‘…Senior Fire Inspector Almour Robins’ (deceased: Shot and killed while playing dominoes at a Bar in Browne’s Avenue), ‘…set the darn dried grass and shrubs alight.’
The grassfire burned its darn way back up to ‘…Indigo from where it started and whence it came.’
And that was the end of ‘…Solomon Grundy.’
Now, ‘…What Fire Tender or Tenders,’ would be dispatched to the scene of a’…Major Fire’ [ANR: February 8, 2020], with ‘…Air in the Tankers’ or ‘…Air Brakes Reservoir as extinguishing agents?’
Seems somewhat irresponsible, if not ‘…mendacious’ for such ‘…repetitious statement’ to have been made by, above all, a ‘…Minister of Education.’
Not a Messenger,’ but a darn ‘…Defender of the Faith.’
A comment of I may add, the first truck on the scene was in fact the tiny red truck which was said to be there to first ” assess the blaze…… that tiny truck is design to work to be attached to a fire hydrant which is nowhere near that blaze….. this the reason for the people of that community to say the fire truck arrived without water.
Now mr Micheal representing the people mentioned what the people observed which wasn’t incorrect nor in accurate.
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