Investigators attached to the Guyana Fire Service (GFS) were up to yesterday working to determine the cause of Thursday afternoon’s fire at the Christ Church Secondary School which has left more than 500 students displaced.
In a telephone interview with Stabroek News yesterday, Fire Chief (ag) Gregory Wickham said ranks were on the scene up to yesterday afternoon combing through the debris in the aftermath of the blaze.
“We are doing investigative work….We have our ranks on the ground going through the debris to come up with any possible clues that would lead them to the cause of the fire,” Wickham said.
There were claims that the fire might have been set deliberately. Minister of Home Affairs, Robeson Benn told reporters at the scene on Thursday night that “there is information which the police are working on as we speak.”
Several efforts made by Stabroek News to contact Benn yesterday for an update on the investigation proved futile as calls to his phone went unanswered.
The police are said to be assisting in the investigation.
Amidst these claims, a certificate of inspection dated January 5, 2023 which was signed and carries a stamp from the Ministry of Public Works’ Chief Electrical Officer was circulated on social media site, Facebook on Thursday.
Stabroek News understands that the inspection was conducted at the Christ Church Secondary following last week’s fire which was contained. The certificate which was seen by Stabroek News indicates that the electrical wiring of the building was examined, ruling out any faults in the system.
As such, persons had speculated that it is unlikely that the fire could have been electrical, more so just days after an inspection was carried out.
Asked about this yesterday, Wickham said while he is not aware of the certificate of inspection which is being circulated, the Ministry of Public Works has a department that deals with all government electrical-related issues.
“So in cases of any inspection of electrical nature, they have the authority to deal with that,” Wickham said.
Thursday’s fire was the second to have occurred at the school within a week.
The fire on Thursday started at approximately 5:25pm with only smoke seen emanating from the section of the building situated on Camp Street. The GFS was summoned and upon their arrival, firefighters entered the building in an effort to identify the exact location of the fire. Within minutes, the entire upper flat of the building was completely destroyed and the ground floor was gutted.
On January 4th, the GFS was summoned to the school around 4:30 pm after receiving information that smoke was emanating from the building.
Wickham had said although initially believing it was a fire, investigations found that several chemicals being stored in the Science laboratory were released and caused a combustion. The chemicals were subsequently removed from the building.
Security
At the time of the fire, the school premises was secured by Atlas Security Service.
Stabroek News yesterday afternoon spoke to an official of the firm who said that they too are investigating the fire.
“…..We are looking at what would have transpired, we are taking statements from our officers and so on,” the woman, who wished not to be named said.
While she confirmed there was a security presence at the school when the fire unfolded, she could not immediately say how many persons were on duty.
However, the woman told this newspaper that one of the guards who was on duty contacted the company’s office on Thursday afternoon upon noticing fire coming from the school building.
“I can say that one of the ranks that was on that location made contact with the office shortly after they saw fire coming from the building and they were advised by this office to get to a safe space, taking the security diary with them,” the woman explained.
By that time, she said the GFS had already been informed. “This office contacted the fire service and was told that they had already sent units out to that location,” the woman noted.
Within the past two years and a half, there have been a number of fires at public buildings, which have raised concerns about the need for increased security to protect state assets.
While engaging members of the media on Thursday, Benn made a general call for all communities, parents and children in the country to stand in support of the education system and to keep a watch on the nation’s assets, especially the education infrastructure.
He also appealed to the media to broadcast the call for help to protect the nation’s assets, “I am appealing with the media too to put out the call to help us to protect the nation’s assets.”
Benn emphasized that it is very strange for these incidents to happen within a short period of time at the same place. “I am not speculating, I am merely saying that it’s passing strange and it’s a tremendous blow and it is unusual in itself that we have had a number of fires at large schools in the country…..The spike in the number of fires at schools itself has to tell us something,” he said.
In August last year, 32 security personnel from the Ministry of Education had benefitted from fire safety training. The GFS had said during the training the security workers were educated on evacuation procedures and the use of fire extinguishers by staff of the fire prevention department.
Previous fires
A check by Stabroek News revealed that between June 2021 and January 2023, a total of nine fires occurred at public buildings across the country.
Six took place at public schools.
Just days before Thursday’s fire, a combustion had to be quelled in the Christ Church Secondary School lab.
In July last year, a fire ravaged the St. George’s High School. A month before this, a small fire had erupted in the Charlestown Secondary school laboratory.
Meanwhile in 2021, there were two major fires at the North Ruimveldt Multilateral Secondary and the North West Secondary School.
On June 19, 2021, a fire quickly ripped through a section of the North Ruimveldt Multilateral Secondary building that housed the Science and Information Technology (IT) labs, the Home Economics Department and a number of classrooms. More than 500 enrolled students were also disrupted.
Months after this, the North West Secondary School in Mabaruma was destroyed by a fire. The fire occurred on September 24, 2021 and a security guard attached to the school reported hearing three explosions and seeing smoke and fire emanating from the direction of the Head Teacher’s Office.
The three remaining fires occurred at buildings occupied by the police.
The most devastating of these took place on October 2, 2021 which saw the Brickdam Police Station being flattened. The Brickdam Police Station is the headquarters for Region 4A. The fire started in a section of the police station which housed the fraud department. The building was an old wooden structure which was located close to the lock-up area.
More than a month after this, a fire gutted sections of the multipurpose building which housed the Guyana Police Force’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) at Police Headquarters, Eve Leary. A quick response by the Guyana Fire Service (GFS) had prevented the blaze from spreading to the offices of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), situated in an adjoining building.
However, the force’s construction department and barracks that were also housed in the building were also destroyed.
And in May, last year, a small fire erupted on the ground floor of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) HQ, Eve Leary. It was contained by the GFS without any major damage.
In four of the cases, investigations stated that they were electrical in nature. It was stated that the fire at North Ruimveldt Multilateral Secondary was caused by a faulty electrical point while the one at CID HQ was due to an electrical fan.
Another two of the fires: at Brickdam Police Station and North West Secondary School were acts of arson.
A prisoner, Clarence Greene, who was in the lock-up at the time of the fire, has confessed to starting the blaze at Brickdam Police station out of frustration. He was charged with arson and remanded to prison.
