The Commission of Inquiry (CoI) in its report on the Mahdia dorm fire which claimed 20 lives, lauded the diligence and dedication demonstrated by GFS Sub-Officer Ryan Scott when attending to the inferno on May 21st, 2023.
In the report handed over to President Irfaan Ali on Friday by Chairperson of the Inquiry Major General (Retired) Joseph Singh, the commission said that in the face of very limited resources from the Guyana Fire Service, Officer Scott who was in charge of the Mahdia Fire Station, took the initiative and exemplified bravery in all dealings regarding his response to the fire.
“We consider these traits to be fitting for emulation by all members of the Guyana Fire Service. The Guyana Fire Service would certainly benefit from Mr. Scott serving in a higher leadership capacity in the Service”, the commission stated.
The Commission added that it considers the diligence and dedication in the execution of duties of Sub-Officer Scott to be worthy of commendation.
“It would therefore be a missed opportunity if this Commission omitted to highlight such efficiency of this serviceman. His devotion to service is to be emulated by other servicemen and women in the Guyana Fire Service”, the report stated.
In July of 2022, the Guyana Fire Service took action to operationalize the Mahdia Fire Station. Accordingly, Scott was seconded from the Headquarters of the Guyana Fire Service to head the station and serve as the Officer in Charge and Head of the station’s Operations Department.
Seven regular fire officers were also deployed to the Mahdia Station.
Scott in his testimony before the CoI on October 4th, 2023 said that following his appointment, he conducted an inspection and assessment of the Mahdia Fire Station and its equipment to determine their effectiveness to undertake the function associated with firefighting.
By email dated 4th August 2022, Sub-Officer Scott reported to the Chief Fire Officer, Gregory Wickham the condition of the AT1 Hinterland (Fire Tender) and its ability to provide an effective fire response.
In the report, Sub-Officer Scott urged the Fire Chief that there was a dire need for the following to be addressed at the station:
· The fire Tender required a change of tires due to one being burst and beyond repair and others being seriously damaged;
· the cab of the Fire Tender was rotting due to it suffering from flooding;
· The fire Tender was not idling;
o the pedal was broken;
· the seats were damaged and stained with red loam;
o the ladder rack was broken off;
· the headlamp required replacing due to it providing poor lighting;
· a siren was needed;
o the hose reel was out of order;
o The fire Tender needed spraying and bodywork;
o the beacon lights were not working and required replacement.
On 9th August 2022, Sub-Officer Scott provided another report to the CFO, this time identifying several items which were urgently needed at the Mahdia Fire Station to safely, effectively and efficiently carry out the function of the Guyana Fire Service.
He accordingly requested one light pump, one power saw, one disc cutter, one
compressor, one jaws of life, one hydraulic ram, two rescue lines, four pairs of carabiners, one pair harness, one descender, one pair anchor strap, one tripod, six pulleys, one sled stretcher, one sledge hammer, fifteen lengths of delivery hose, two basket strainers, one bolt cutter, three cutlasses, two branches, four breathing apparatus sets and cylinders, one pair of torch lights, one spotlight, one paid ceiling hook, one crowbar, one pair suction wrenches, one pair ascenders and one stretcher.
Officer Scott testified that he never received a response to this e-mail.
The station was not equipped with many of the items which he requested.
Scott’s response to the fire on 21st May 2023
According to Sub-Officer Scott, at about 23:12hrs on the 21st day of May 2023, while at the Mahdia Fire Station, he received a running call advising him that the female dorm was on fire.
Following this, Scott and other on-duty officers equipped themselves with Personal Protective Equipment prepared the Fire Tender for the response and then departed for the scene.
He told the commission that upon arrival at the Mahdia Secondary School dormitory, he observed the female dorm to be fully engulfed in flames.
He said at that time, the southern part of the building’s roof had collapsed, while the building had about 80% red flames signifying the presence of combustible material such as wood and about 10% blue flames signifying the presence of a flammable substance such as batteries.
He told the inquiry that he was able to account for 16 children having exited the building.
Scott, and other officers, alongside auxiliary personnel, then moved to effect a rescue of the other students trapped in the building.
According, to the inquiry report, Scott said that after doing a 360-degree scan of the burning building, he determined that room 2 on the northeastern corner would be the easiest access point to effect the rescue.
He accordingly identified a 6 x 6 wooden plank and, with assistance from his colleagues and some civilians, was able to “breach” room 2 by creating a hole in the wall.
After successfully breaching the wall, Scott used the hose with a jet of water to create a rescue path. With this being done persons went into the dorm and effected the “rescue of about 26 to 28 persons”.
Scott noted that of the persons, rescued some were conscious, unconscious and had burns on their bodies.
Scott also told the commission that by the time the rescue path was created, the Fire Tender ran out of water since its capacity was only 450 gallons of water.
This supply of water was accordingly exhausted within three minutes, which prompted Scott to leave the scene with the Fire Tender in search of the nearest source to replenish the water tank.
The CoI report stated that “The water source was identified about 2 miles from the fire at a location on the airstrip road”.
During this time, Scott testified that he instructed the auxiliary officers to utilize hose equipment and a mobile pump from the appliance to hose water from a nearby drain to assist in extinguishing the fire.
Upon his return from refilling the tank at Airstrip Road and realizing there was no progress with the mobile pump, he went to the location where he determined that water was prevented from being lifted due to clogging of the drain and debris from trees in the drain.
He then entered the drain and manually cleared away the debris and other items creating the clogging. Water was then lifted from the drain. Scott told the CoI that after a few hours, at about 3:00 am, the fire was fully extinguished.
He recounted that having extinguished the fire, a search of the building was conducted where 14 bodies burnt beyond recognition were discovered.
“We were told that 10 bodies were in room 1 (the House Supervisor’s room) where the solar panel batteries were situated, 2 bodies were outside the door and 2 more bodies were in the pathway next to room 3”, the COI report read.
“These bodies were handed over to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and the investigation of the cause of the fire was later handed over to the Fire Prevention Department”.
The Commission noted that the Mahdia Fire Station was a newly commissioned facility with its construction concluding in 2017.
“Despite the town benefiting from this brand-new facility, the station had no trained officers. Instead, volunteers referred to as “auxiliary firefighters” with no official or formal training and experience in firefighting were entrusted with operating firefighting equipment and responding to any eventuality of a fire”, the inquiry report said.
“We learnt that an All-Terrain (AT) Fire Engine (Fire Tender) was assigned to Mahdia around 2012 but from then until 2022 was stored in the RDC Compound and maintained by auxiliary firefighters under the direction of the REO” (Peter Ramotar).
