-padlocked gate prevents Fire Department, GPL emergency crew gaining access to the affected area
RESIDENTS of Lamaha Park and Lamaha Springs are crying “Enough is enough”, after wires on a lamp post in Essequibo Street, Lamaha Springs (home of the Joint Services) remained sparking dangerously for more than half an hour on Monday last, as the fire tender and Guyana Power and Light emergency crews raced to the scene, only to find that they could not gain access to the area where the  problem was existing. This was because of the presence of a heavily padlocked gate, separating the Joint Services Scheme in the east and Lamaha Park to the west.
The fire-fighters attempted reaching the post with the sparking wires, using the Lamaha Park route, which was definitely shorter than travelling from its Water Street base to Lamaha Springs using Aubrey Barker Road.  But when the fire unit arrived at the scene they discovered that, even though the post was within their view and just about and a short distance ahead of them, it still could not be reached, because of the chained and heavily padlocked gate.  In addition, they would have had to wait on the GPL to first, stop the flow of electric power to the post.
The fire tender therefore, resorted to driving back out of Lamaha Park, south along Jackson Street Tucville, then up Aubrey Barker Road, turning back north into Kaikan Street, before eventually reaching Essequibo Street to where the sparking post was located.  That took about fifteen minutes.
GPL’ s emergency crew, on the other hand,  arrived soon after, but having received word that they were needed in Essequibo Street, Lamaha Springs (Joint Services Scheme), hastened there, using the Aubrey Barker and Kaikan Street routes.
However, on arriving at the sparking post, the GPL crew found that they too, had a big problem.  Their problem was that, even though the post was sparking in the Joint Services Scheme to east of the padlocked gate, the only way they could have stopped the flow of power to the sparking wires, was by de-energizing it, using two locks on the main post which is planted, not in Lamaha Springs in the east, but in Lamaha Park to the west of the gate.
Ironically, the two posts stood less than 90 feet away from each other, separated only by the padlocked gate.
In order to expedite their job the GPL employees were forced to fetch their ladder and other tools from the vehicle, and then squeeze their way through the locked gate, in order to reach the main post in the other scheme.
In the meantime, heavy duty equipment carrying other linesmen and replacement poles also made the long trip, via Aubrey Barker Street before commencing the removal of the burnt out lamp post in Lamaha Springs.
Incensed, residents are calling on the Minister of Home Affairs, Clement Rohee, to intervene in this situation involving the separation of two communities by a gate.  They have expressed outrage that tax payers’ money is abused when unnecessary trips like the ones made by the two units on Monday are undertaken.
Residents said they shudder to think what could have happened had the sparking on the lamp post affected people’s homes.  At least two homes have been previously  destroyed – one in Lamaha Park and another, in Lamaha Springs, a mere cross street away from the padlocked gate, simply because the fire tender was  unable to get past it.
Community members also recalled that when GPL  Chief Security Officer, Malvin Peters was shot a few metres away from that same gate, the other GPL staffers on the scene were forced to drive the long route out of the area to his home in Essequibo Street, to inform his wife who was off duty on that day.  By the time they returned with her, his body was already at the mortuary.
Referring to Monday’s scenario, residents opined that, after realizing that homes in the Joint Services Scheme were being threatened, it would have been the proper thing for the person keeping the keys to be alerted and requested to let fire tender and GPL’s equipment be allowed to get past the gate.