Family homes burn ‎as Lucea goes without fire truck

Monday, September 29, 2014 | 7:18 AM    

HANOVER, Jamaica — Eight persons, including four children, are now homeless, following a fire that destroyed two board dwellings in Haughton Meadows, Hanover on Sunday morning.

The fire, which started sometime after 9 o’clock, was reportedly ignited by a three-year-old who was playing with a lighter in one of the bedrooms.

The Lucea Fire Department said they received the call shortly after the fire started, but was unable to respond, as the unit at the department was out of service.

Kirk Atkinson, the district officer attached to the fire station in Lucea, said the unit has been out of service since Thursday, due to a broken sub-frame.

In the meantime, the Negril Fire Department responded to the blaze.

According to Bruce McDonald, the district officer attached to the station, the fire was brought under control nearly two hours after the unit arrived on the scene.

Anthony Lewis

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Family homes burn ‎as Lucea goes without fire truck

"Faith without work is dead"

A pastor’s suggestion and a reiteration by Minister of National Security Peter Bunting that the country needs divine intervention to tame the crime monster have come in for ridicule from Jamaica Observer online readers. At a service at the Mandeville Seventh-day Adventist Church in Manchester on Saturday, Pastor Greg Baldeo several incidence of crime, particularly in recent days, have underscroved the need for God’s intervention. Bunting, meanwhile, said he had no apology for making the statement in April, which generated much controversy. The story was published in yesterday’s Observer. Here are some edited comments:

castroFaith (prayer) without work is dead. If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food and one of you say, “depart in peace and be filled”, notwithstanding you give them not those things which are needful to the body, what does it profit? Praying for divine intervention without putting in place tangible and workable policies to fight crime is like praying in vain.Louis LawrenceMr Pastor, show or tell me one country anywhere where crime was reduced due to divine intervention and I can show you large cities that reduced or eliminated crime by designing and implementing a comprehensive crime-reduction plan. Our politicians are either incompetent or lazy or both. The pastors really just need to wake up, some statements are really just good for the headlines.Carlos KingJamaica is a “so-called” Christian country but when we were called to stand up for God, when it was voiced that in order to solve our crime problems we need divine intervention, civil society leaders and followers rubbished the statement and called for the messenger’s resignation! When it mattered “Christian” Jamaica turned its back on God. But God will never turn His back on Jamaica.johnchristianThere has been hundreds of calls For divine intervention for all the ills of Jamaica… to date the “divine” seems to be not paying attention to us. May I suggest that the brains given to us by the alleged “divine” be used to solve these issues. This mixture of religion and politics is not working.Fabian WilliamsBefore the election he had a plan, where is it now?AckeepegWe are becoming a country of God haters and are reaping the whirlwind.lenatStart the prevention measures and see if we will not have good results. They are failing desperately at fixing.rasbenjiA story rife with discomfort. A pastor who proudly declares he’s never voted in an election. Who also declares that the cure for the nation’s ill is to arrive through divine intervention. In a public prayer with/for a minister of Government charged with the job of ensuring national security who declares (without apology) that he’s incapable of doing his job without the intervention of God. A public display of partiality with the choice of which denomination/religion is the path of that ‘intervention’.BLACKHAWKDivine intervention is needed to get rid of the politics as we know it, after which everything else will fall in place. The egotists seeking self-glorification are to be made aware.Enos AndersonI wish these pastors would stop misleading the people and desist from giving them false hope.If God was in control of crime and criminals we would have a crime-free world; if prayer breakfast or otherwise could curb crime, we would not need police officers and a minister of national security.What we need is to enforce the laws of the land, we need to make criminals tremble in their boots at the thought of being caught, we need parents to bring up their children to respect the law, we need politicians who are respectful, honest and law-abidingPastor of the Mandeville Seventh-day Adventist Church in Manchester Greg Baldeo prays with Minister of National Security Peter Bunting during a prayer for the nation at the Independence Service held at the Mandeville Church on Saturday.

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"Faith without work is dead"

We"ll operate without insurance, says JATOO

THE Jamaica Association for Transport Owners and Operators (JATOO) said its members would operate their vehicles without insurance or end public passenger service, if insurance companies refused to renew their policies.

“We are giving Advantage General Insurance Company (AGIC) and other insurance companies 14 days to review their decision [not to insure public passenger vehicles]. If it is not reviewed, JATOO operators will continue business without insurance or do no business at all,” JATOO President Egerton Newman threatened yesterday.But head of the Traffic Department Superintendent Radcliffe Lewis immediately rubbished the JATOO threat as “damn foolishness!”, saying he would have none of it.“This is damn foolishness. JATOO knows they cannot take the bull by the horns; they need to go, and meet with the people from the insurance company and deal with their drivers,” Lewis said.Newman told the Jamaica Observer that the insurance companies, particularly AGIC, the main insurer of such vehicles, were using taxis and other public transportation vehicles as a cover for high claims from vehicular accidents in the past year.“The insurance company has been complaining about high claims they have been receiving, however, they say that it is always vehicles with PPV licences that make these claims when that is not true. They are using us as scapegoats to cover for individuals in society who actually make these claims,” Newman said.The JATOO president accused AGIC of being afraid to reveal the real perpetrators, claiming: “The insurance company is afraid to say that it is the doctors and lawyers who are making these claims, and causing the losses. PPV licensed drivers are always seen as undisciplined when an accident takes places, but it is ok when it’s the lawyers and doctors.”He noted that some accidents were not reported as the drivers repaired the damaged vehicles themselves. “Only three per cent of road accidents are our fault, so why are we being targeted? Tell the public what the real problem is,” Newman declared.He maintained that JATOO was taking the issue seriously and was adamant that a review must be made within two weeks.Lewis, who said he was beyond being appalled at Newman’s statement, expressed his full support for the insurance company’s decision and said JATOO had no right to give the company an ultimatum.“I knew that sooner or later this would have happened, there is too much indiscipline from taxi drivers and public transport vehicles. I’ve been telling them to get their house in order, there is too much false claims being made and bad behaviour on the road. At the end of the day, it’s the company’s right and choice to insure who they want to insure,” he said.Lewis, however, warned operators of public transport vehicles that if caught without insurance the law would take its full course.“They know the outcome if they are caught operating without insurance, I won’t say anymore,” he said.He further advised the motoring public to be cautious, and to use only insured PPV vehicles.NEWMAN…..we are giving insurance companies two weeks to review their decision.

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We"ll operate without insurance, says JATOO