The Chief Fire Officer has warned that emergency vehicles are being impeded by an increasing number of street vendors blocking key access routes in Bridgetown, as the Barbados Fire Service prepares to implement enhanced safety measures that may require a rethink of where vendors operate.
Expressing heightened concern over the growing number of street blockages caused by vendors and the major challenge these pose to emergency vehicles accessing strategic sections of Bridgetown, fire chief Errol Maynard revealed plans on Tuesday to convene a meeting in an effort to agree on a solution.
He told Barbados TODAY: “In the commercial areas, because of the increase in vending, you might have situations where they block an alley with their umbrellas and their stuff to vend. That is something that can be worked on, but we will work with the government and the regulatory bodies to see how best we can reposition to allow them to still ply their trade, but not compromise safety. Safety is paramount.
“We have started that process,” the fire chief added. “We have submitted some reports, and hopefully, I should have a meeting tomorrow with some of them…some of the principals. This is an ongoing thing because people might come and set up, and somebody might tell them something, and when you leave one area and you revisit it, some person might come and do something they are not supposed to have done. So, it’s a constant thing we have to do…constant surveillance, constant checks, and reinforcing the message as often as possible.”
Maynard cautioned those intent on breaching safety regulations that, as fire chief, he has the authority to remove offenders.
He said: “If you are blocking areas, we can ask you to move, and if you don’t move, then we can take action against that as long as it is a safety thing. But where vendors ply their trade, how they ply their trade, is not a fire service jurisdiction. But it’s that when they are doing it and it compromises safety, then we will have to speak to it and take action to remedy that particular activity.”
He said that so far, vendors have cooperated with his department when called upon to do so in the interests of safety.
Chief Maynard said: “We work with them to find ways to ensure that they comply. That is, by repositioning persons. It is an issue for us; but working with them, generally we would get them to comply. I am meeting with the principals on that to see how best we can come up with a solution to allow the vendors to be able to ply their trade, to allow the store owners to be able to ply their trade successfully, but also not compromising safety or access to emergency vehicles on a daily basis.”
He identified the principals as the Barbados Association of Retailers, Vendors, and Entrepreneurs (BARVEN), the government, store owners and all other entities involved with street vending.
“It’s not a case that we want to make anybody criminal or any of the sort. We just want to make sure that it is safe,” he said.
The chief fire officer also expressed particular concern about The City’s bustling commercial area of Swan Street and the access challenges it poses for local businesses.
Maynard said: “The access, not only for vehicles, but access for pedestrians. For Swan Street, I suppose that over time it has grown; the vendors have increased; the number of stores has started to compete with the roadside vendors, and they have encroached the passage road, and that is a concern for us.”
He also addressed safety issues involving new and existing buildings in Bridgetown.
“All new developments and any material changes to existing buildings are supposed to meet building code requirements as they relate to alternate exits,” Maynard said.
“There are some buildings in Bridgetown that do not have the space to create alternate exits.”
He said that in those cases, particularly with small one-door stores, fire officials require them to install what he described as compensatory factors.
Maynard cited additional smoke detectors, alarm systems and staff training as examples, equipping businesses with an early warning system to ensure that, in an emergency, people would know exactly what to do.
“But that is in the minority. The majority of new buildings are up to code. We have not got to all the small stores as yet, but our officers go out on a daily basis and touch base with some, and some come in, some call in on their own; and we work with them to become as compliant as they possibly can,” he said.
But the fire chief said stores with only one entrance would likely remain: “I don’t believe we would ever get rid of one-door stores, not in the near future. The bigger places like New York also have one-door stores. Some of them [in Barbados], were built centuries ago, and they don’t have the space to expand. But once there are material changes, we ask them to put in certain things.”
emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb
The post Fire chief warns vendor blockages threaten emergency access appeared first on Barbados Today.
