Dear Editor,
Last week Monday morning greeted many of us with the news of a blazing furnace that devastated yet another building in the heart of Georgetown.
This time it was one of the city’s finest health centres – the St Joseph Mercy Hospital. Every day, fire is haemorrhaging away our rare national monuments, exquisite tourist attractions, places of worship, government buildings, residential structures, businesses and schools.
Statistics over the past three years – 2007, 2008 and 2009 – show that the reported cases of fire as recorded by Guyana Fire Service were 1090, 1279 and 1767 respectively.
As of May this year, 1068 fire incidents had been recorded. If you do the mathematics, you will find that during the past four years, we have experienced an average of 25 fire incidents per week! These figures are quite alarming and something has to be done about it. And the right time to act is now. I must thank, at this juncture, the staff at Guyana Fire Service who were so willing and helpful in providing this information at a short notice.
Every time a fire takes its toll and spreads its ugly tentacles over our property, we always find ourselves in a position of hopelessness, helplessness and defencelessness. So out of frustration, we resort to the blame game.
We blame the fire service for not responding on time. The fire service blames the water authority for failing to make water available at the appropriate outlets. The water authority blames the electricity company for not maintaining an interrupted supply of current to power the pumps.
The electricity company blames home owners for careless use and/or illegal connections of electricity. The home owners blame the insurance companies for not being compensated handsomely for the losses they suffer.
The insurance companies, being caught between a rock and a hard place, become forensic specialists in the twinkling of an eye, with a fact-finding mission to uncover the causes of fire outbreak. The blame cycle goes on and on.
However, the good news is that fire outbreaks can be prevented, or at least controlled. The following ten-point agenda, which if fully implemented, could reduce the incidence of fire considerably.
1. There is an urgent need for national consultation, a plan of action on fire management, and the implementation of stringent building codes and standards, similar to those adopted by countries experiencing other forms of natural disasters.
2. Public awareness programmes about fire management and prevention should be intensified in the media, just as we do on HIV/AIDS; after all fire has become our national man-made natural catastrophe.
3. Buildings in the city should undergo rigorous inspection and compliance tests every year, and subsequently be issued with certificates of fitness, just as we do to vehicles.
4. All buildings should be re-wired every ten years and/or the wiring should be re-certified by competent electricians. The electrical wires in some buildings in Georgetown are too old and rusty to the extent that they are just waiting for the right time to detonate like bombs.
5. A week should be declared ‘Fire Awareness Week’ with activities designed to educate the general public on how to prevent and/or handle fire incidents. I would suggest a week in June, since June is one of the months without any public holidays, and besides most couples tie their knots in June to publicly demonstrate their fire for each other.
6. The financial institutions and insurance companies can help a great deal by charging higher interest rates for the construction of wooden structures. This will encourage prospective home owners to opt for concrete buildings which are less susceptible to fire.
7. All buildings (especially public buildings and businesses) in Georgetown should have fire extinguishers and alarms installed in strategic positions, and the occupants trained in how to operate them.
8. It should be made a mandatory requirement for every organization to employ at least one full-time health and safety officer, with years of experience in fire-fighting.
9. Fire management should be incorporated into our school curriculum. Starting from play school our children should be taught how to handle fire, and not to play with the sources such as matches.
10. The entire system at the Guyana Fire Service should be properly upgraded, with state-of-the art equipment and well-trained fire-fighters, and our young people should be motivated to join the service.
In concluding therefore, I am making this solemn appeal for fire prevention to become everyone’s concern so that they are not included in the next fire statistics.
Yours faithfully,
Mfon Akpan
