Fire chief calls for large, part-time squad

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 11: A new team of professional part-time firefighters could be recruited to help tackle major incidents.

The 30-strong retained crew would be made up of volunteers from all walks of life and across Bermuda.

They would be fully trained by the Fire Service in their spare time and would receive a contract and a wage.

At present there are just eight retained firefighters on the island who are called upon when they are needed.

Under the new proposal this number could be more than tripled if it gets the financial backing it needs to get off the ground.

Chief Vincent Hollinsid told the Bermuda Sun the idea was to create a more professional and formal retained crew.

He said: “We need to look at our staff levels in the Fire Service and I think we need to do this fairly urgently. We are currently around 22 or 23 firefighters down on where we would like to be. This new retained crew would make us be more efficient and effective. If we had 20 or 30 more people to support us across the island it would be a tremendous help.”

Chief Hollinsid admitted that the devastating blaze at HWP last year had prompted the service to look at new ways of bolstering its numbers.

He said: “The purpose is obviously to have enough men on the ground if and when we have to deal with a big fire like the one at HWP. The HWP fire has made it more urgent because we saw we had some vulnerabilities.

“Had it not been for the direction of the wind on that day and the fact we had our new recruits on hand to help out we could have been dealing with a very different situation.

“In the circumstances I feel the service dealt excellently with that fire.

“But we have to learn from it too and make sure that if a big fire of the same size happens again we can get 20 firefighters to the scene as quickly as possible.

“This is still very early days but we would look towards businessmen and women and people from all walks of life to form this retained crew. We would obviously have to come to an arrangement with their employers to ensure they could help us if they were needed.

“But it would have obvious benefits.

“The training would be more intensive and as a result we would have a more professional and structured retained crew.”