Minister of Home Affairs and Information, Wilfred Abrahams, has lauded the bravery of Barbadian fire officers who were deployed to St. Vincent and Grenada after the devastation caused in those islands by Hurricane Beryl.
The fire officers were praised during the Chief Fire Officer’s Parade and Awards Ceremony, at the Arch Hall Fire Station, last Friday.
Mr. Abrahams, who presented awards to the fire officers, commended them for their acts of bravery in the hurricane-ravaged islands of St. Vincent and Grenada.
“I want to formally, on behalf of Government, thank you for what you did. It was not easy going to St. Vincent and Grenada, in the midst of devastation, and executing your duty.
“This was not part of the duties that you signed up for when you signed up for the Barbados Fire Service. I don’t think you even contemplated that you’d be called upon to give of yourself in the way that you did. But what you, in effect, did, was help a country and a people who were at their lowest,” the Minister stated.
He noted: “Fire is the one profession that you all put yourselves at risk every single time you go to save somebody you don’t know, to preserve a family that you don’t know, to help somebody else go back to the family that you don’t know.
“I want you all to understand – all of you in here who are family to these brave men who are standing here and even all the rest who are not receiving awards today – I want you to truly understand the service and the risk and the bravery that is exemplified in the Barbados Fire Service.”
Certificates of Commendation were presented to Fire Officers Kyle Brathwaite, Miguel Cort, and Isaac Newton for their bravery and rescue efforts at home in Barbados. Junior Brathwaite, Nicholas Collymore, Daniel Toppin, Chad Blackman, Corey Bridgeman, Jason Codrington, and Christian Hunte received theirs for their exemplary humanitarian service in St. Vincent and Grenada.