Two new fire stations were built last year and a third rehabilitated under the government’s programme to boost fire safety known as the Jamaica Disaster Vulnerability Reduction Project. Under the programme, new fire stations were built in Yallahs, St. Thomas and Port Maria, St. Mary while rehabilitation works were completed on the Old Harbour Fire Station in St. Catherine.
The Jamaica Fire Brigade’s (JFB) emergency response capacity was bolstered with the addition of 185 firefighters last year (2022). Several training programmes were conducted, including search and rescue, electric vehicle sensitization, motor vehicle extrication and water rescue. Fire equipment was also bought last year, including bunker gear, structural firefighting helmet, extinguishers, stand-by generators and water rescue equipment.
Activities to build public fire safety and fire prevention continued under the Community and Life Safety Programme.
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Fire Safety Being Improved
Two new fire stations were built last year and a third rehabilitated under the government’s programme to boost fire safety known as the Jamaica Disaster Vulnerability Reduction Project. Under the programme, new fire stations were built in Yallahs, St. Thomas and Port Maria, St. Mary while rehabilitation works were completed on the Old Harbour Fire Station in St. Catherine.
The Jamaica Fire Brigade’s (JFB) emergency response capacity was bolstered with the addition of 185 firefighters last year (2022). Several training programmes were conducted, including search and rescue, electric vehicle sensitization, motor vehicle extrication as well as water rescue.
Fire equipment was also bought last year, including bunker gear, structural firefighting helmets, extinguishers, stand-by generators and water rescue equipment. Activities to build public fire safety and fire prevention continued under the Community and Life Safety Programme. Under this programme, 659 fire drills were conducted in schools, workplaces and places of safety; 352 hydrants were repaired and 1,056 maintained. In addition, 7,795 building inspections were carried out.
Meanwhile, the total number of genuine fire calls for 2022 was 7,756, which was a 3.1 per cent decline over the figure for 2021, which stood at 8,003. The largest number of genuine fire calls occurred in St Catherine (1,792), followed by Kinston and St. Andrew (1,654). Eight parishes recorded declines with the largest percentage decrease being observed in Westmoreland (33.5%) followed by Hanover (31.7%) and Clarendon (17.3%). Increases were recorded in five parishes.
A total of 1,819 persons were impacted by fire last year, 81 fewer than in 2021. The number of deaths, persons sustaining injuries and persons rendered homeless fell by 41.5 %, 43% and 1.5% respectively. Civilian adults accounted for 69.9% of the affected population. However, children remained vulnerable to fires, accounting for 29.2% of recorded deaths with a total of seven.
Non-Structural Fires remained the more dominant fire category (81.6%) of the total fires reported but decreased in incidence by 4.2%. The decrease was mainly attributed to a reduction in the occurrence of bush fires. In contrast, the number of structural fires (1 427) increased by 2.1%. Bush fires were most prevalent in St. Catherine (1,098), Kingston & St Andrew (406) and St James (318), which experienced periods of drier conditions and meteorological drought.
Climate and disaster resilience capacities were strengthened under a project to develop a Bush Fire Warning Index and Management System for the entire island. This digital platform utilizes rainfall, temperature, soil type and land-use data to determine the risk of fire. Aspects of the project also included monitoring of pilot sites prone to wildfires; use of a common alerting protocol; and a public awareness and education campaign titled ‘Jamaica Against Bush Fires’.
The Fire Service in Jamaica was established in October 1871 with the formation of the Kingston Fire Brigade to satisfy the need for a trained and equipped Fire Service to be responsive to growth in housing, industrial and commercial developments in Kingston following a spate of large fires which had ravaged sections of the City’s commercial sectors.
The rural Parishes were not without their own defense against fire hazards and under the Parochial Fire Brigade Act 12 Parish Fire Brigades were established at various times – in St. Catherine (1933), St. Elizabeth (1934), Portland (1936), St. James (1942), St. Mary (1948), St. Ann (1951), Trelawny and Hanover (1957), St. Thomas, Clarendon and Manchester (1958), and Westmoreland (1961).
Steps to bring about a unification were taken in October of 1988 with the passing of the Fire Brigade Act, which repealed the Kingston and St. Andrew Fire Brigade Act and the Parochial Fire Brigade Act “….and established in and for (all) Jamaica a national Fire Service (thereafter) to be called the Jamaica Fire Brigade…”
