By ANNELIA NIXON

Tribune Business Reporter

anixon@tribunemedia.net

A former Abaco Chamber of Commerce president yesterday questioned how the island’s volunteer fire fighters will be compensated as she blasted the response to last week’s downtown Nassau fire.

Daphne DeGregory-Maoulis told Tribune Business that “there’s not a penny that the Government contributes to” Abaco’s fire fighting capabilities as she praised the volunteer and private fire fighters who have been helping to contain blazes on the island.

“It’s all volunteer and private,” Mrs DeGregory-Maoulis said. “There’s not a penny that the Government contributes. In fact, we have to fight… They don’t even maintain the verges on the road enough, or the properties, like their abandoned properties are not cleared.

“The land isn’t cleared around them. There’s no fire prevention. There’s no equipment that the Government, Ministry of Works, has that can push in fire breaks and clearing around private properties.”

As for the downtown Nassau fire that destroyed the Victoria Court residential condo complex, Mrs DeGregory-Maoulis added: “Well, 29 people lost their homes. Over here, we might lose one or two houses, which if we only lose one house, with all the fires that we’ve had, our fire department needs to really seriously be commended.

“And what will the Government do about it? How will the Government thank the volunteer fire fighters of Abaco for saving the lives and homes of their citizen?. We are their citizens. Will they just say thank you? Or will they say: ‘Here’s a financial contribution?’ Every time the fire trucks go to the gas station to fill up, it comes out of a person’s pocket.

“They don’t have anything here, only at the airport. They only have one fire truck at the airport, which is mandatory for us to be able to receive planes. .. That’s why you all had to shut your airport down the other day, because the working fire truck had to go to fight the fire on Bay Street. Absolutely absurd,” Mrs DeGregory-Maoulis continued.

“So, I want to know what our government is going to do to give thanks for the saving of lives and properties that these volunteer firefighters have done. Stepped out of their houses, left their homes, left their families everything, left their businesses to protect the Bahamian citizens of this island.”

She acknowledged Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) and a water aircraft from the US which aided in extinguishing the fires. The aircraft, according to Central and South Abaco MP, John Pinder, was a result of “coordination with local partners”.

A Facebook post by the Abaco MP said: “While I may not always be readily visible on social media, please know that I am fully engaged in the response efforts. Having served as a volunteer fire and rescue member since my youth, I understand the tremendous sacrifice and strength it takes to face these fires head on and am working alongside Abaco fire chief departments, RBDF, RBPF to provide them with any assistance I can provide.”

“I understand, talking to him and some of the guys involved in the politics part of it, they are intending to do some proper fire breaks around the communities that’s normally affected, along with the airport,” co-owner of Alltrax Heavy Equipment, Ken Bethel, said. “So that’ll be a help. If we could get some, not rushed, but jobs done right when it has to be done, if you could plan it and do it properly, where you got access for the trucks in the future, that’ll be a big help.

“He has definitely reached out when it was burning in the Spring City community. At the time, we was already working on another project. But he’s reached out several times. So we fill in where we can. And some of the other companies I’ve seen moving around, doing stuff.

So, the MP John is a personal friend. I’ve known him for years, and he has been helping, and has said that his constituency will contribute towards paying us or paying for fuel or whatever. But we honestly haven’t even gotten that deep in the conversation, because at the time when you’re fighting fire, there’s no time to sit and talk about money,” Mr Bethel added. 

“We got to get it done. Now, if you want to contribute at the end of it towards the expense of doing it, then excellent. But at the time of need, no one should be worried about money, right at the moment.”

Carvan Ferguson, owner of Fergie’s Fire and Safety Maintenance Services in Abaco, also praised the volunteer and private fire fighters. In an effort to contribute, Mr Ferguson said he would like to install fire hydrants throughout the island.

“I want to install fire hydrants on every settlement in Abaco because a lot of times fire trucks - after they empty - there are no fire hydrants around,” Mr Ferguson said. “They have to turn back around, ride way back to the nearest fire hydrant. Sometimes the fire hydrants be far. So after the truck run out, what else can you do? So that’s a major problem here in Abaco. There’s really no fire hydrants here in Abaco.”

Mrs DeGregory-Maoulis questioned why more “hullabaloo” isn’t being made over the losses at the Victoria Court complex. “Unfortunately, I was very sad to hear what happened to Nassau with the losing of Victoria Court,” she said. “We have a fire department, a governmental fire department in New Providence. They are paid fire fighters, Fire Department. I mean, they have equipment.

“How is it that a fire truck can be dispatched with no water, number one? How is it that we don’t have a working fire truck in the immediate area of our hospital and Bay Street - that condensed business area. The time it takes for a fire truck to go from the airport to Bay Street, if no other car was on the road, is too long. Fire doesn’t wait. And I don’t understand how, with a volunteer fire department, we have a better fire equipment status than New Providence, the capital, the city where we have a paid Fire Department. This is, to me, unacceptable.

“I don’t see where there’s enough hullabaloo being raised about it. I mean, whoever’s in charge of the fire department should be sacked. That loss of those homes, those very valuable 29 families, as far as I understand, are displaced, have nothing left.”