Jamaica Fire Brigade Gets New Commissioner
Chief Fire Prevention Officer of the Jamaica Fire Brigade, Assistant Commissioner Laurie A. Williams has been appointed Commissioner of the Jamaica Fire Brigade. The appointment was made by the Jamaica Fire Brigade Board on Monday June 25 and takes effect on July 2, 2007. Mr. Williams will succeed Commissioner Fredrick Whyte who demits office on June 30, 2007.
A ceremony to mark the Change of the Guard will take place at the Headquarters 1, Engineer Regiment (JDF), Battalion Square, Up Park Camp, on Saturday June 30, 2007 commencing at 4:00 pm.
The new Commissioner comes to the job with a wealth of experience having served the Brigade for 29 years.
Commissioner Whyte retired in 2005 after 38 years but remained in the service on contract, during which time he served as Commissioner.
Laurie Adrian Williams joined the Fire Brigade on September 01, 1977, as part of the then Kingston and St. Andrew Fire Brigade, and was subsequently placed at the York Park Fire Station. He was promoted to the Officer Corps of the amalgamated Jamaica Fire Brigade as an Assistant Superintendent in 1995.
Since then, he has held positions in various Divisions and Departments of the Jamaica Fire Brigade to include Commandant of the Fire Brigade Training Department from 1996 to 2000; Assistant Commissioner in charge of Area IV, which consists of St. Elizabeth, Westmoreland, Hanover and St. James from 2004 to 2005; Assistant Commissioner, in charge of Area III, which consists of St. Catherine, Clarendon and Manchester from 2005 to 2006. He was the Chief Fire Prevention Officer from 2006 to his present promotion to the rank of Commissioner of the Jamaica Fire Brigade.
During his tenure, his quest for additional knowledge to broaden his scope of firefighting took him to Sweden in 1999 where he received training in Risks and Crisis Management and to the Fire Service College in England on two occasions (1995 and 2007) where he earned Diplomas in Operational Command and Brigade Command. He also pursued various overseas and local Firefighting and Management courses to include Public Administration, University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona.
He was awarded the Medal of Honour for Meritorious Service in 1998 and appointed a Justice of the Peace (JP) for Kingston in January, 2004