The 2010 report of the Fire Advisory Board established by the Ministry of Home Affairs was tabled in the National Assembly on April 28. In the backdrop of the devastating fires that continue to wreak havoc with our built heritage it contains important recommendations which the ministry and the government would be well-advised to act decisively upon.
This board was established in 2006 and has grappled with several critical issues over this period. Its most recent report brings it closer to an action plan than can improve the ability of the fire service to save buildings particularly our treasured wooden structures. This will only happen, however, if there is the will to act.
In part, the Board says that for Georgetown there should be a special water main for fire-fighting purposes and serviced by untreated water. It also advised that a “koker system” or “intermediate pumps” with a network of fire hydrants/mains be established in built-up areas. In themselves these are common sense recommendations that have been advocated for many years in various quarters but are they practicable and affordable?
We can ill afford the use of treated or well water in fire-fighting and possibly the only sensible way to supply adequate quantities is to tap the abundant river water or the spill-off from the East Demerara Water Conservancy. Finding an adequate source of water is imperative. It has become a part of our fire history – particularly so in the last 25 years – that fire tenders arrive on the scene with barely enough to make a feeble assault on the blaze before firemen have to scurry around for other sources losing valuable minutes in combating fires.
Inevitably, if a canal with a sufficient level of water is discovered – and one not overly infested with weed that would impede the flow – then firemen rig up a pump-and-hose contraption which is then aimed at the fire. This is a thoroughly unacceptable practice and brings the discussion to the second recommendation i.e. a koker system or network of hydrants. For a number of years, concerned members of the public and the media have homed in on the collapsed hydrant network and reminisced on the days when firemen would conduct routine checks on hydrants to ensure that they were functional. These days, a working hydrant would be rarer than a fire hose without holes yet the government has made no effort to address the problem. It has allowed responsibility for the hydrants to be orphaned and denied even as important buildings are devoured for the want of them.
The ministry has also dithered with the absolute need for a cheap and adequate source of water. Instead, the ministry seems more enthused about equipment acquisition and grandiose exhibitions such as the one at the old Globe cinema on Friday with its telescoped fire-fighting unit showing its ability to battle a blaze from overhead. Neither the equipment nor the displays will improve the effectiveness of fire-fighting with access to water.
After being tabled in Parliament one would have expected that the minister might have telegraphed his and his government’s intent on the report. Suffice to say that in an election year and with no obvious political benefits, the government will not act on the recommendations of the Fire Advisory Board. This will be a task left to the incoming government which one hopes would have a greater sense of respect for our built heritage and acumen for serious and strategic planning.
A parallel water system housed in its own infrastructure will not be an easy or cheap undertaking and would have to be properly conceptualized and engineered. The government would also have to evince similar concern for other communities which are at the mercy of fires. Mahdia and Lethem are two communities which were recently ravaged by conflagrations without having fire-fighting capacity on the ground. While the private sector has pitched in, the onus is on the government to accoutre these areas with their own fire-fighting units. Bartica and Rosehall recently benefited from investment in fire-fighting but that’s only a drop in the proverbial bucket and a new government would have to focus in an organized manner on the priority areas.
In an editorial on October 12, 2009, SN had said “The solution is a comprehensive revamping of the fire hydrants and ensuring that they have an adequate supply of water. Many of the major fires that have occurred in the capital over the last decade and a half have occurred within close proximity to hydrants which sadly could provide as much moisture as early morning dew. The hydrants stand as silent sentinels of a breakdown that defies common sense and highlights a fundamental failure of this government. Who has responsibility for the hydrants and how they could be supplied with water without breaking GWI’s bank has engaged the decision-makers of PPP/C governments for many years. They have signally failed to address the problem. The city, GWI and the fire service have haggled interminably about addressing this great deficiency even while Georgetown and other parts of the country burn. It is testament to a gross failure of governance that this problem has not yet been resolved and that hydrants have become victims of road contractors who have damaged and even destroyed them.
“It had been a matter of consideration for the Disciplined Forces Commission and surveys suggest that only a fraction of those in the city are still functional. When he was appointed to the post of Home Affairs, Minister Rohee had commendably established a Fire Advisory Board which had on its plate among other things the question of the fire hydrants. It is now high time that Minister Rohee pilots a bill in parliament that would establish the primacy of the humble hydrant in the fight against fires and to work out with his colleague in the water sector how they would be supplied. In the light of the enormous cost of piped and well water there had been consideration in other jurisdictions about running a separate system for hydrants using river water or sea water solely.”
Much of that argument remains valid. It remains to be seen if the Fire Advisory Board’s report will be given the urgency and the financing that it deserves or left to gather dust. The risk of delay is that many more buildings such as the 208-year-old one that housed the Christianburg Magistrate’s Court could be lost to fire. Losses such as these cannot be afforded and the entire country is poorer as a result.
