substantially increase manpower.

Just one Hamilton fire engine and one Port Royal fire engine are normally available to rush to the scene of a blaze.

Off-duty firefighters have to be called from home if these two fire engines aren't enough to do the job.

Chief Fire Officer Mr. Reginald Rawlins said 35 to 40 part-timers would ensure that a second vehicle could be sent from the Hamilton station within a few minutes of an alarm sounding.

The part-timers would probably be divided into about four shifts, with the on-call shift responsible for rushing to the station when an alarm sounded.

They would spend about one night a week at the station to answer calls and undergo training.

Mr. Rawlins said a feasibility study must still be done and details are far from certain. "But I'm very, very optimistic,'' he said.

Bermuda's fire service was once manned entirely by volunteers. But the system faded in the 1960s and 1970s. There are still six volunteers "on the books'' in Hamilton but they have not been used since Hurricane Emily.

The town of St. George's has an independent volunteer fire department which would not be affected by any part-time system developed by the Bermuda Fire Service, which is responsible for the rest of the Island.

"Volunteers have been very, very good and they have saved the country an awful lot of money,'' said Mr. Rawlins, himself a former volunteer.

A new system of part-timers would cost money, Mr. Rawlins said, but could cost less than paying overtime to off-duty firefighters or hiring more full-time staff.

"These are the ideas we are exploring,'' he said. "It's not cast in stone.

It has to be worked out and it has to be costed.'' But any attempt to re-introduce part-timers to the Bermuda Fire Service would have to overcome the problems that effectively killed Hamilton's volunteer system, he said.

The part time firefighters could be split into shifts, so only a quarter of them would be on call at any given time. That would make it easier on the firefighters, their families and their employers.

"Obviously, if it were a major incident we'd need everybody,'' Mr. Rawlins said. "But that will probably only happen once in five years.'' By having part-timers respond to virtually every incident, the old volunteer's complaint of being excluded from the action would be eliminated.

Mr. Rawlins said a greater degree of commitment and obligation could be expected from firefighters being paid to do a part-time job than was possible with a volunteer system.

"We are looking at a system where they will give us a commitment, and they will be compensated for that commitment and for doing the job,'' he said.

And treating the positions as part-time jobs would make it easier to attract the firefighters needed. Between 30 and 40 part-timers would be required for the system to work, Mr. Rawlins said, and a poor economy should make the promise of an exciting part-time job more attractive.

Ultimately, Mr. Rawlins said, the addition of part-timers would mean a substantially improved response to fires.

He cited an example where a trash bin fire was reported on Church Street moments after a fire engine left the Hamilton station for a reported fire at St. Brendan's Hospital. The trash fire was just a hundred yards or so from the Hamilton station, but was not put out until the truck from Port Royal reached it.

At present there are about 60 firefighters divided into four shifts of 15.

Of the 15 on any shift, at least four are at the Port Royal Station, leaving 11 for the Hamilton station, one of whom must serve as the dispatcher.

Annual leave, illnesses, injuries, and training programmes take still more firefighters off the rota, typically leaving enough to man just a single fire engine out of Hamilton.