Minister Usher Continues Familiarization Tour with NEMO and Fire Service

Minister Henry Charles Usher continues to meet with the various entities that formed the National Emergency Management Organization (NEMO). Usher was assigned the portfolio last month and has since been familiarizing himself with NEMO’s offices and branches. On Friday, Usher, who succeeds former NEMO Minister Andre Perez, met with members of the National Fire Service of Belize in Belize City. The meeting lasted almost over two hours and centered on the department giving Minister Usher an update on its operations, concerns, and ongoing initiatives. Our newsroom spoke with the minister about the discussions and the importance of his familiarization tour. 

Henry Charles Usher, Minister of Public Service and Governance and NEMO: “The opportunity Friday was a good one and there were five main things that came up.  Number one, equipment. There was a request for more equipment, including radio equipment.  I wasn’t aware that the radio equipment, some of it very old, needs  updating. So I think it’s important that we have the proper equipment in place for our firemen and for the response team. We also looked at the training opportunities that members of the National Fire Service can get. And they asked for more structured training, which I think was very good of them. It’s not just regular or training to become a fireman but they  trainings to become EMTs, to become different parts of the services that they provide. So I think that was very good, request coming from them. Thirdly, we looked at increments. We spoke about increments. We spoke about the reason why some increments have not been paid and really most of it has to do with administrative issues with files and so on. So we gave them our pledge to try to bring all files up to date so that each member can have their increments, their proper increments paid. Fourth, we looked at allowances. We looked at a number of allowances that the firemen receive and what they want or are requesting from their department. As you know, allowances go to the Joint Staff Relations Council and so those requests will go to the next meeting of the Joint Staff Meeting and we will see what the response is. But I do believe that support will be given for the firemen to get allowances, such as the wet and dirty allowance, the different on-call allowance and so on. And lastly, a big issue that we raised was a permanent home for the headquarters for the National Fire Service. As you know the former administration, UDP administration, sold the fire station, the headquarters, without a plan to build another one, which was very unfortunate because now they are like nomads. They’re right now at the Marion Jones Stadium, which is not conducive really because if you have a big event, a concert, a football game, sometimes the trucks can’t get out because of persons parking on the side of the road. So I think it’s important that we find a permanent home for them. There is land set aside for them across the Chetumal Street Bridge. And so we want to try to be able to build that permanent headquarters for the National Fire Service.”

Usher was joined by his Chief Executive Officer Rolando Zetina.