And while he wants to address zoning - the village chairlady wants his office or the government to address the shortage of firemen on the island. Mortis confirms that there was in fact only two firefighters on duty when they received the call.
Kenneth Mortis, Station Officer, National Fire Service
"Two firemen, fortunately we had two more that were off duty and you know they have the love and the passion for the job for what they're doing, So they responded they joined in the fire fighting. Again I cannot overemphasize the appreciation we have for those bucket brigadiers. They played a crucial role for us to effectively downsize that damage. Like i said in the beginning if you look at the close proximity between buildings it could have been worse so it was a well put together oil machine between the bucket brigade and between the fire department and this is where we are at today had they just turned a blind eye to us there would have been much more damage than what was done."
Despite being a small island, Mortis says he does recognize the need for more firefighters within the village. He anticipates that with GOB's new budget they will be able to recruit more firemen:
Kenneth Mortis, Station Officer, National Fire Service
"It's no secret cabinet has granted the fire department through the ministry an intake of firefighter recruit training which we plan to embark on early next year. After that we are hoping that we can get at least 60 fire fighters from that and we will distribute them to areas that we see where requires more men or in terms of what we would class as high risk even though Caye caulker is classified as a village it is funny because it sits on an island where it isn't easily accessible and now that village that sits in a village of water is now classified as a tourist destination. So we will definitely want to look at that and see how we can increase manpower on that island not limited to San Pedro and mainland. Those are the areas that we will be targeting coming January 2024 we will start the new year off the ground and running and we will have the first of two recruit training and we will see how it goes from there."
Later on, Mortis discusses another recent fire in the city - at a solar powered facility.
