Serious risk is faced by one of St Ann’s most developed upscale communities which is without a useable fire hydrant.
In fact, Head of the St Ann Fire Service, SuperintendentAnthony Hines says what passes for hydrants in the Vista Del Mar Housing Development, near Drax Hall, are no hydrants at all.
The vulnerability of the scheme of high income earners with large houses, between St Ann’s Bay and Ocho Rios, was shown up recently when a fire occurred there and the fire unit had to leave the community and go to a neighbouring one, at Village Green, where they accessed water.
At Thursday’s monthly meeting of the St Ann Municipal Corporation, Councillor Dallas Dickenson raised the matter of the adequacy of fire hydrants in Vista Del Mar after the recent incident, asking why the fire units could not use the hydrants.
The fire services head said on investigation of what had happened at Vista Del Mar, “what we saw there are not fire hydrants.”
Mayor: You say they are not fire hydrants (Mr Hines) what are they?
Hines: I don’t know.
Superintendent Hines said that from research, 30 fire hydrants were recommended for the Vista Del Mar subdivision development. He said the fire department was “unable to fathom” how the situation reached where it is. He said he and his team were doing some research regarding the fire concept at the scheme.
There was no decision at the meeting about what should be done to deal with a clear case of danger to a community.
