Guyana made international headline news when twenty children were killed in the Mahdia School dormitory inferno in the Potaro- Siparuni Region in May last year. Sadly, children continue to be burnt to death in domestic fires. Seven children were among the seventeen persons killed in fires 󠄀 this year –an eleven-month-old infant in Sophia; four members of a family at No.64 Village; a four-year-old child in Sophia and a three-month old infant at Enmore. One hundred and thirty-eight persons were killed, 104 injured and 2, 796 persons were left homeless as a result of fires over the last seven years.
Former President David Granger, speaking on the programme – The Public Interest – expressed concern that fatal fires have been a continuous, serious and ubiquitous menace. Presidential commissions of inquiry to investigate the causes, initiate remedial action and indict the culprits to prevent recurrences are held only in the worst cases.
The Guyana Fire Service, fortunately, conducts its own departmental investigations which have suggested that most house burnings have been deliberate − usually the result of domestic, personal and property disputes, set to destroy evidence of fraud or to exact revenge on others. Arson can be difficult to detect or determine, hence, the actual number of incidents can be underreported. Arson-related fires tend to be more serious and are often set at multiple points of ignition with flammable materials to accelerate the spread of flames.
Mr. Granger alluded to the well-known fact that decaying, colonial-era, wooden schools and other government buildings − with unsafe electrical wiring but without adequate fire-prevention equipment − have been particularly vulnerable to catastrophic fires. Government buildings have been the scenes of several fires particularly during the PPP’s 23-year-tenure (1992-2015). Fires have also been occurring – in homes, supermarkets and schools – in towns and villages in every region in the hinterland and on the coastland, leaving scores of persons homeless.
The former president warned that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) administration should consider implementing a comprehensive national fire protection plan that emphasises continuous public education and engagement on fire prevention to inform the public about fire hazards. New public buildings should be designed and constructed in accordance with modern safety standards and in locations which inhibit fires, facilitate prevention and provide for safe evacuation and rescue.
Regular, fire safety drills in schools and public buildings should be mandatory. He recommended, also, that Neighbourhood Police and Community Policing Groups countrywide should be trained to respond to alarms or extinguish fires and that the Auxiliary Fire Service – a permanent organisation to support the regular Fire Services and promotes fire safety – should be reestablished in accordance with the Fire Service Act.
This country continues to suffer devastating fires – distressing households, disrupting lives and destroying buildings – every month. No other Caribbean country can equal Guyana’s notorious reputation for children’s deaths and destruction of government buildings by arson. Lives could be saved and property could be protected by paying more intelligent attention to solving this age-old problem and ensuring 󠄀the level of public safety and social protection that our children deserve. 󠄀
