David Antoine, Assistant Divisional Officer at the Saint Lucia Fire Service (SLFS), has highlighted two major challenges firefighters faced when responding to Wednesday’s house fire in Sunbilt, Castries. In an interview with the STAR, Antoine explained: “On Wednesday February 6, 2019 at approximately 5:50pm, fire officers from the Castries fire station responded to a house fire at Sunbilt Castries. On arrival at the scene, fire officers encountered a structure that was fully engulfed.”
Antoine continued: “Fire officers encountered numerous problems in battling the fire. The access route to the fire was in a deplorable condition so that firefighting equipment could not be stationed sufficiently close to the scene. Also, fire officers had to work with a limited water supply because there was no hydrant close to the fire.”
By Antoine’s telling, his team was forced to fight the fire from an estimated 20-metre distance, for lack of road access. “What we encountered were more like tracks—footpaths that in no way could accommodate heavy fire trucks. There wasn’t even room to park close to put up an effective fight.” Then there was the absence of fire hydrants anywhere near the scene. Firemen had no choice but to make trips to replenish their own water supply. Antoine urged project developers to install fire hydrants and other such water infrastructure before selling land for housing developments.
“It is up to the developers to see that those items are in place if the intention is to develop a plot of land for sale. This is something that should engage the urgent attention of governments.” Referencing the Sunbilt fire Antoine added: “There was very little we could have done. With the added challenge of having to park so far from the scene and having to use many lengths of hose, we faced a mission impossible.”
He went on: “The upstairs area of the 2-storey building was made of wood, the lower part, concrete. The top part was completely destroyed. The bottom part still stands but only because it was all concrete. Of course, the actual contents were completely lost to the fire.” The building housed eight individuals.
As for the cause of the fire, as with most other fires here, it remains a mystery: “That is an incident that is still being investigated. As to how soon we could get a report on that, I do not know but we’re following all leads to see if we could actually determine the cause of the fire.”–
