How prepared for rescue are Bz firemen?
Over the last week we saw hundreds of U.S. fire-fighters putting their lives on the line to save life and limb, many of whom paid the ultimate price for their heroism. This leads us to wonder how equipped our own fire-fighters are to deal with a similar tragedy here at home. News 5’s Ann-Marie Williams put the question to Ted Smith, the man responsible for operations at the Fire Department.
Ann-Marie Williams
“Let’s say the Princess Hotel would be burning; people would be trapped in the highest floor. How equipped are you to quickly evacuate and save lives?”
Ted Smith, Operations Officer, Fire Dept.
“Not as equipped as we would like to be. A place the size of Princess, if it is filled with guests, would require a large amount of manpower to effectively mount a rescue. We have acquired a lot of equipment over the last two years, such as rescue extraction equipment from road traffic accidents. Some of these same equipment can be used in times of a collapsed building. Our Emil-50 can cut certain steel bars, it has a cutting force of up to thirty-eight thousand pounds. We don’t have gas masks, we just have self-contained breathing apparatus, positive pressure. But those only last about forty-five minutes per cylinder. After that time, you need to change your tank. We have spreading and pulling equipment, as well as lifting, we have the ram that lift up to fifteen thousand pounds. We have airbags that can lift quite a lot. We’re not as equipped as we’d like to be for a collapsed building such as what we are seeing. I don’t think we will ever get that stage either, in your and my lifetime. I don’t see the country really building such a building and mounting such a rescue in the next twenty, thirty years. I’m still not seeing us reaching there.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“So if it should happen next year at the Princess and it’s crowded?”
Ted Smith
“We will do the best with what we have.”
Smith says the Belize Fire Service is upgrading its professional image by recruiting more fire-fighters and providing additional training for those already within its ranks.
