Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries, Physical Planning, Natural Resources and Co-operatives, Hon Ezechiel Joseph fulfills a long overdue promise of providing the constituents of Babonneau with a fire and ambulance service.
On Sunday 16 December 2018, an ultra modern fire station was officially opened in central Babonneau.
The Station is the 9th fully operational outpost for the St Lucia Fire Service. It comes at a time when the Department is making strides in dealing with resource constraints. Recently, 45 recruits graduated into the Service. 28 of them will serve at
the Babonneau Fire Station. Chief Fire Officer, Joseph Joseph says the operation will be of great service to the constituents and the officers.
“The operation of the new station is expected to result in a reduction in a number of responses at both fire service headquarters and the Gros-Islet firer station from the shared workload. The added staffing will serve to boost the morale of serving members and assisting them, addressing some human resource concerns, including the reduction of stress and burnout”
The Chief Fire Officer told the ceremony that the aim is to work with organizations to enhance safety and create resilient communities and mitigate the effects of disasters. The Chief Executive Officer of NIPRO, which constructed the facility said the Station was designed to help fire officers meet that mandate. NIPRO financed and constructed the Fire Station under the build, operate, lease transfer arrangement, referred to as BOLT.
“Constructed at an
overall project cost at approximately 6.6 million dollars this modern facility provides a combination for 28 persons with 10,300 square feet of floor areas. This facility was designed by inter island architects and planners limited, represented hare today by Director Marc Hennicat with consultancy services provided by Theobalds consulting, the structural engineers J.C. Francis and Associates MEAP Engineers and WR Felix Ltd Quanity Surveyors”
The Babonneau constituency has a population of 12 thousand people spread across 15 communities, it is one of the largest constituencies on Island with challenging topography. It is against that background that Parliamentary Representative, Hon Ezechiel Joseph believes that residents needed emergency services in a closer proximity.
“In Babonneau we have had some bad experiences. And not through any fault of the fire service. Because when you look at coming from Gros-Islet to Babonneau, andlook at the trafiic that the ambulance has to go through, when you look at coming from Castries to Babonneau, I saw the need for us to have this facility built in Babonneau,”
The Babonneau Fire Station also falls into broader development plans for Castries North East area. Prime Minister, Hon Allen Chastanet gave some insight.
“We are working on opening up the highway from the Darren Sammy Stadium to Dennery, “ He says. “And that is going to facilitate the lands that have never been available to Saint Lucia previously. We are also talking about putting in a major archery road Babonneau to Choc, The Allen Bousquet Highway.”
According to the Prime Ministr the highway will create easier access to Castries and Choc and service a bigger part of the community. Prime Minister Chastanet reiterated Government’s commitment to improving the conditions of work and remuneration for fire and police officers. National Security Minister, Senator Hermangild Francis informed that efforts are afoot to ensure that all major communities have ready access to emergency services.
“The West Coast is an area that needs a fire station and deserves an emergency response team which is closer to the various communities, “The Minister says. “As it stands now the Castries stations responds to as far as Anse La Raye and Soufriere responds to the needs of Canaries. Our Vision is to close that gap with a station along that route, so that others who are still on the waiting list will not worry, your turn will come.”
Retired officers of the Fire Service who hailed from Babonneau were honoured at the opening of the Babonneau Fire Station. They included former Chief Fire Officer, Augustin Gaspard and deputy Chief Fire Officer, Paul Edgar.