Minister of Home Affairs Robeson Benn has stated his intention to address the various challenges faced by the Guyana Fire Service in the wake of the Sheriff Street conflagration on Wednesday afternoon which destroyed three commercial properties.
Benn made this disclosure while speaking to the media at the scene of the fire on Sheriff Street on Wednesday afternoon.
“I am concerned about the lack of energy in their operation. Of course, some are saying they are tired. I am also concerned about their training or the intervention aspects which I am seeing on the ground,” Benn said.
He noted that “too many” officers were on the scene and none of them was in “assertive” control.
“That appears to be a problem on the face of it and also in term of the application of the equipment that they had, for what water they had at the time. Those are the issues we have to confront in their training and in their intervention,” Benn noted.
“….We have to look at their training and their intervention and their energy when they are out here. They appear to be very low energy so we have to look at that,” he added.
Benn said he made his way to the location from his Brickdam office after he noticed black smoke “rising” for over an hour in the distance.
He said he initially thought that the fire was under control, but upon his arrival at the location, discovered that it was not.
Upon assessing the situation on the ground, Benn said the officers highlighted that they were faced with a number of challenges – mainly the intermittent supply of water from the mains and the lack of foam to deal with the materials that were burning.
The Guyana Fire Service is often times criticized for its responses particularly its penchant for turning up to fires without adequate water supplies.
After assessing the situation on the ground, Benn told reporters that he gave the officers an hour to get the fire under control. “I have asked them to get this fire under control in an hour’s time, for those who are the on scene and incident commanders or operators to take control of their men and their activity,” Benn said.
By Wednesday evening, while the fire appeared to be under control, firefighters were still battling to completely put out the blaze.
Two Saturdays ago, Benn had met with the leadership of the Guyana Police Force, the Guyana Prison Service and the Guyana Fire Service where he outlined his policy for the services.
Among the elements outlined in the policy were the need for ranks to be equipped with the appropriate tools and training when responding to scenes of accidents and incidents and the implementation of a 10-point improvement strategy for all divisions, branches and departments within the three services.
