What could have possibly been another major fire in the city was averted at the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) headquarters on Brickdam yesterday.
An overloaded electrical outlet exploded into a small fire in the General Manager’s office and resulted in the Guyana Fire Service (GFS) being summoned to the building.
“It was reported that an electrical point was smoking. Our ranks went in, we checked to verify and indeed in the Manager’s Office there was a point there, it appears to be something overloaded, power was cut,” Divisional Fire Officer Haimchandra Persaud explained yesterday, before noting that the building was also evacuated.
He stated that the Scheme’s electrician was called in to determine the safety of the point but the fire service after responding has recommended changes.
“As recommended, we talked about the points to be replaced. All the conductors appear to be aged, so we also indicated to them that things need to be changed to prevent a re-occurrence of this situation,” he stated.
Persaud said two fire tenders form the Central Fire Station responded and one from Alberttown.
Stabroek News gathered that the Fire Service responded promptly to the call and was able to prevent the fire from growing any bigger.
The GFS has faced criticism over its firefighting response on Saturday at the Brickdam Police Station fire.
After the NIS incident yesterday, Persaud noted that it was the third response to a fire for the day and he noted that none that they responded to grew to the stage where it became uncontrollable.
The other two fires were at the Guyana Post Office Corporation’s (GPOC) Headquarters on Robb Street, Georgetown and a bridge in Campbellville.
After speaking with staff, General Manager of the National Insurance Scheme Holly Greaves said she was happy with the response from the fire service.
She stated that they were able to get into the building and avert any major damage that could have been caused.
“They responded quickly and our Electrical Engineer is here and we were able to locate the source of the fire. We managed to turn off power… we will have an electrical inspection done before we turn on anything right now. Thank God we are okay…,” she said yesterday.
