Lawmaker Inspects Conditions at District Fire Stations

In advance of the annual review of Gov. Albert Bryan’s executive budget, a member of the Legislature’s Committee on Government Operations and Consumer Protection toured fire stations in the St. Thomas-St. John District. Sen. Carla Joseph said the tour was conducted to prepare herself and her staff to discuss the readiness of the U.S. Virgin Islands Fire Service, the pace of repairs to fire stations and the condition of equipment needed to meet emergencies.

A similar tour took place for fire stations on St. Croix two weeks earlier. On Feb. 24, Fire Service Director Daryl George joined Joseph and her team as they visited four facilities on St. Thomas and two on St. John. The tour began at the Omar Brown Sr. Fire Station near Barbel Plaza and ended at the Romeo Company Fire Station in Coral Bay, St. John.

Both facilities were in relatively good shape, Joseph said. Omar Brown is the most recently built, with its Fire Service Romeo Company having had some repairs completed after the 2017 hurricanes Irma and Maria with help from a St. John-based foundation. In between, however, there were stations where the slow arrival of promised federal recovery funds was apparent.

“This is just to highlight the operation of the fire service, so (Joseph) can ask questions, take pictures. She has a union representative here with her to share any concerns she has,” George said.

One of the improvements Joseph sought at Omar Brown and Romeo Company is separate sleeping quarters for male and female firefighters. The fire service currently has 18 female firefighters who share coed dormitories with their male coworkers.

Joseph called the Coral Bay station, “good and operable.”

“But they don’t have separate quarters for male and female,” she said.