$14.9M fire station for Melanie
Chief Fire Officer, Marlon Gentle
Chief Fire Officer, Marlon Gentle

FIRE prevention on the East Coast of Demerara is expected to be boosted with the construction of a new fire station at Melanie Damishana.Fire Chief Marlon Gentle, in an interview with this publication, said that an estimated sum of $14.9 million was awarded in the 2016 national budget to start phase one of this project. However, next year’s national budget will cater for the completion.

“It is now being advertised; things are still in the tendering process”, he said. “The idea is to give a quicker response to fires on the lower East Coast Demerara, from Beterverwagting to the Nabaclis area,” he said.

He noted that the fire station was expected to be constructed north of the Melanie public road, alongside the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph cell tower.

Earlier this year, the Guyana Fire Service said it was looking to establish fire stations in new housing schemes, since it believed the establishment of fire stations in such areas will see a reduction in response time to fire calls.

For the East Coast Demerara corridor, the only fire tenders that respond to fires are from the Campbellville and Mahaica stations. There is a total of 16 fire stations in Guyana. In the year 2015, the GFS saw an increase in fire calls. A total of 2,223 calls were received, with 128 buildings being totally destroyed by fire, 25 buildings severely damaged, and 97 buildings slightly damaged.

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