Satellite first-response stations needed in rural St James – Davis

Montego Bay Mayor Homer Davis is renewing calls for three satellite first-response stations to be established in sections of rural St James in order to cut the waiting time for firefighters or medical personnel from the city to come and render aid.

Davis made the recommendation while addressing last Thursday's official groundbreaking ceremony for the rebuilding of the Barnett Street fire station in downtown Montego Bay.

He said that he wants the stations specifically in Maroon Town, Cambridge, and Adelphi.

"When fire occurs in these areas, it will take you 25 minutes to reach Cambridge, Maroon Town, or Adelphi, so the call is to make the police stations in those areas into a multi-agency emergency-response team," said Davis. "What you would have there is small pumpers, or mini-fire trucks, and also to be equipped there would be an ambulance because can you imagine some child running across the road up in Dumfries and a car should hit that child? You'd have to call an ambulance from Montego Bay, and that trip would take an hour from the occurrence of that incident until it reaches to the hospital."

Davis made a similar call last November during a meeting of the St James Municipal Corporation.

The latest call was made after Jamaica Fire Brigade Commissioner Stewart Beckford observed that fire calls in St James had increased over the years since the Barnett Street station's shutdown in 2006.

"In 2006, ... the St James fire division responded to approximately 881 fire calls. Then fast-forward to 2018, where the division responded to approximately 1,700 fire calls. We believe that the increase in fire calls and other emergencies is due to the development that has taken place in St James, generally, and the Montego Bay area, in particular," said Beckford.