While fire hydrants remain a non-existent feature in Region Five, the Guyana Fire Service (GFS) plans to procure additional water trucks from next year’s budgetary allocation.
The body is also working closely with the neighbourhood democratic councils in the area to ensure that canals and drains are cleaned at all times.
According to the Govern-ment Information Agency (GINA), Fire Chief Marlon Gentle, while speaking on Friday at a forum at the Onverwagt Fire Station as part of Home Affairs Minis-ter, Clement Rohee’s outreach in Berbice, noted that the aim of the GFS is to equip each fire station with at least one water truck (bowser).
Gentle also stated that the fire service is working constantly to encourage additional auxiliary firefighters to augment the efforts of the unit.
As regards training, he said that by the year 2013, the GFS intends to commence instruction courses for its ranks at the fire-fighting training school at Leonora on the West Coast of Demerara (WCD). The facility is designed to enable the execution of approximately 90% of the GFS’s training, mainly the practical aspects.
The facility has the capacity to accommodate 50 to 60 persons and it is expected to greatly boost the department’s capacity in order to function more efficiently, GINA stated.
