Old Harbour Fire Station informed by landlord to vacate premises

Supt. Patrick Callum, acting divisional head for St Catherine Fire Department, confirmed to Old Harbour News the predicament the staff under his management now faces. A memo to all staff during the first week of this month had informed workers that an eviction notice is imminent and that they were seeking the assistance of all employees to find a suitable alternate. 

According to Supt. Callum, who has been temporarily reassigned from Kingston to St Catherine two weeks ago, they have until the end of this month to evacuate the current premises.

“We are there, but remember it was never an ideal place for us to be to begin with, and now the owner wants the property to build up. And remember too its rented property so we cannot do certain things to the building,” the senior firefighter told Old Harbour News.

Asked if they were given notice due to any outstanding rent owed, Supt Callum said he was not made aware of that being the case.

He said they have identified a new base but some section of the facility needs repurposing as well as retrofitting before moving in, which might see them requesting an extension from its current landlord to remain beyond the November deadline.

The development is bound to ignite discussion for the urgent construction of a new modern fire station after the original building was some 15 years ago deemed unsafe and had to be abandoned.

This forced firefighters to relocate further down South Street. But now they are on the move yet again in search of a new base. 

As to when a new and fully equipped facility will be built in Old Harbour, Supt Callum said he was not in a position to shed light on the matter, save and except that a draft design was done years ago.

In June of this year ground was broken for the construction of a $534.9 million fire station at Barnett Street, Montego Bay under the Jamaica Social Investment Fund’s (JSIF) disaster vulnerability reduction programme (DVRP).

Two additional fire stations will be built at Port Maria in St. Mary and Yallahs in St. Thomas under the DVRP. However, Old Harbour was never mentioned.

As far back as 2005, under then local government minister Portia Simpson-Miller fire stations at Barnett Street, Black River and Old Harbour were listed for special attention.

Meantime, Supt Callum informed Old Harbour News that the fire truck assigned to Old Harbour is back in commission. On October 8, a fire unit from Spanish Town had to make the 12-mile journey to Marlie Mount, Old Harbour where a five-bedroom $11 million –valued house was razed. All contents in the house were totally destroyed.