POWELL...persons are still enclosing hydrants onto their properties (Photo: Kasey Williams)
Hydrant headache
Property owners, roadwork hindering access for firefighters
MANDEVILLE, Manchester — Sixty-six fire hydrants in Manchester are now enclosed on people’s properties or covered by repaired roads.
Superintendent Rohan Powell of Jamaica Fire Brigade said the hindrances to accessing these fire hydrants were found during a recent inspection of the 955 hydrants across the parish.
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“We were able to successfully map all fire hydrants in the parish. We recognise that of those mapped, we had 353 only that are in working condition, 335 that are in dire need of repair, 201 that are not working — meaning either water not being in the space or valve damaged,” he said at last Thursday’s sitting of the Manchester Municipal Corporation.
“There are 66 others, and those are a challenge as we will be seeking the assistance of the municipality to deal with. Persons are still enclosing hydrants onto their properties. Persons are still covering over hydrants with valves on the boundaries of the roadway and their property,” he added.
Powell also pointed out that the National Works Agency is to be consulted regarding hydrants affected by roadwork.
“We also will be writing to the NWA from our office, because there are some that they have covered when they are doing road repairs and, as such, most of them are in critical areas where if there is any emergency, it will hinder us from accessing these hydrants in order to effect firefighting capabilities,” he said.
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He said, too, that the National Water Commission has been working with the Jamaica Fire Brigade by providing support wherever excavation is needed.
Powell also announced the repair of fire hydrants for New Acres Drive, Balvenie Drive, Humming Bird Drive, Hatfield Plaza, Melrose Terrace, New Green Road, Caledonia Avenue, and a new installation in Redberry.
In the meantime, he said as the country moves into the dry season, expect an uptick in the number of fires.
“For the month of January, we had 129 emergencies, 104 of which were genuine, 90 of those were classified as bushfires. What we can look forward to as the days progress and the time gets drier, that number will definitely go up,” he said.
“Compared to December 2024, we had only 29 of those emergencies being genuine, where 104 of them were genuine this time around,” he added.
He urged councillors to appeal to people to stop making false calls to the brigade.
“We saw a slight uptick in our malicious false calls and we are still appealing, especially to our councillors, as you go out there and meet with your constituents, dissuade them from making these kinds of calls to the department, it is [stressful] both on the men and on the resources that are available to us. The wear and tear on the vehicle, the unnecessary use of fuel to go from place to place where there is not a genuine emergency, and somebody else may be in need at that particular time,” he said.
Last month the brigade managed to save several structures from being destroyed by fire.
“We had seven structural fires, four of which were residential and three were commercial. Thankfully, there was no injuries, loss of life and no one was left homeless in these situations. We saw a decrease in the loss to property; we had only $4.2 million being lost. We were able to save over $1.6 billion as a result of the work that we put in,” said Powell.
