As Jamaica Builds Up, Fire Safety Must Build Smarter

There is something quietly dramatic about a skyline in transition.

Cranes pierce the blue Caribbean sky. Concrete cores rise floor by floor. What was once open horizon becomes geometry — vertical, deliberate, ambitious. Jamaica is not simply building; it is evolving.

Across the Corporate Area, and increasingly in parishes once defined by low-rise sprawl, multi-storey residential buildings are becoming markers of a new chapter. This is not vanity architecture. It is a strategic inevitability. If we are serious about protecting our hillsides, safeguarding our coastlines, and preserving agricultural land, then building upward is not indulgence — it is stewardship.

And yet, as we rise, we must ask a more profound question: are we building beautifully… or are we building wisely?

The recent commitment by the Jamaica Fire Brigade to strengthen its readiness for high-rise incidents is both reassuring and necessary. Commissioner Stewart Beckford has confirmed deeper engagement at the design stage,…