Bermuda Gives Anguilla A Fire Truck
Bermuda stepped up to assist our fellow island nation of Anguilla by gifting them a fire truck, which as they only have one presently, effectively doubles their fleet. In addition to the obvious safety benefits, our gift also greatly assists Anguilla’s airport logistics as when their one fire truck is in service, they are restricted from allowing airlines to arrive or depart.
At a previous meeting of Overseas Territory officials, Deputy Chief Minister Edison Baird of Anguilla spoke of a problem that his island had with its Fire Service, so Bermuda moved to extend help and gave a $500,000 operational Fire Service vehicle to the people of Anguilla.
At Bermuda Fire and Rescue Service Headquarters on King Street in Hamilton yesterday [June 4], the keys for the vehicle were handed over. Upon receiving the keys Anguilla’s Deputy Chief Minister of Social Development Edison Baird spoke of the appreciation from the people of Anguilla. Mr Baird is pictured below receiving the keys:
Mr Baird said that Anguilla had only one working Fire truck which it had to keep stationed at the airport. When that truck left the airport to deal with another fire, airport regulations mandated that the airport stop receiving or dispatching aircraft. He went on to say that this gift would enable Anguilla to keep itself and the airport operating safely and properly. He said that the “Bermudian truck would be the reliable truck”.
He finished by saying that Premier Brown and the people of Bermuda were practicing real ‘West Indianism’, as we had made a promise and then kept it, and he “had the keys in his hand to prove it.”
The model we are giving to Anguilla is an older model, which the Bermuda Fire Service will be replacing. It is pictured below:
Anguilla, while 50% bigger then Bermuda, has a much smaller population. Their economy is not as strong as ours, with Bermuda’s GDP being approximately 10 times higher.
Nice to see co-operation like this among smaller countries. It is good reuse of the vehicle too!