Joy as Barnett Street Station nears completion
SUPERINTENDENT Dolfin Doeman, the officer in charge of the St James Fire Department, has welcomed news that construction of the long-awaited $575-million state-of-the-art Barnett Street Fire Station in St James is expected to be completed by mid-august.
Superintendent Doeman said the men and women under his watch are eager to occupy the building.
“Naturally, the men and women of the Jamaica Fire Brigade (JFB) are waiting anxiously for its completion and are very eager to get into it,” Doeman stressed.
On Friday, Local Government and Rural Development Minister Desmond Mckenzie and the Jamaica Social Investment Fund’s (JSIF) managing director, Omar Sweeney, expressed confidence that the building would be ready in about two months.
“This project is being constructed under the JSIF’S Disaster Vulnerability Reduction Project at a cost of $575 million, and the completion is now anticipated to be about mid-august. At that time, we will complete the construction activities and the fire department will have the ability to start moving in their equipment and personnel. And so, certainly, full operations will come shortly thereafter,” stated Sweeney.
The Barnett Street Fire Station was closed in June 2006 and the old building, which was deemed structurally unsound, demolished months after to make way for the construction of a modern facility at a cost of $200 million.
However, following years of promises and a ground-breaking ceremony in 2008, it was 10 years later that construction finally got off the ground after another ground-breaking ceremony.
At that time, Local Government and Rural Development Minister Desmond Mckenzie said construction of the multimillion-dollar facility was expected to last 12 months. However, the novel coronavirus pandemic resulted in a temporary stoppage of the work.
Mckenzie told the media last Friday during a tour of the facility that there were no cost overruns on what is being considered to be the most modern
“It is also important to know that despite the challenges with COVID and some stops and starts here, the contractors on those who are in charge have been able to keep the project within budget. So, there is no overrun on the project and we will complete this project in a timely manner and the people of Montego Bay and the wider Jamaica will be proud of this investment,” expressed Mckenzie, who further thanked JSIF and all who have made the project possible.
When completed, the station will be able to accommodate over 200 firefighters and will serve the needs of approximately 200,000 residents across 78 communities.
At present, the superintendent and his deputy are working from a building on Fort Street, Montego Bay and the remaining officers and firefighters from a location in Freeport, St James.
Superintendent Doeman noted that while such accommodation does not impede the men and women from carrying out their duties, “space and the building accommodation” are not ideal for a fire station.
Kevin Haughton, the JFB’S assistant commissioner in charge of operations, said, “we eagerly await the ribbon cutting and the handing over of this facility. This certainly will increase the staff morale and also the efficiency of the fire service here. We will also be introducing a new service delivery which is the Emergency Medical Service and that certainly will increase the fire brigade’s operations here.”
“One of the things that this facility will enable us to do is to increase our female firefighters [ratio] and that is something that we are very excited about,” said the St James fire chief.
Since 2016, the Government has spent almost $1.7 billion on the construction of new fire stations and repairs to others across the island.