In comparison to 2009…
CHIEF Fire Officer Marlon Gentle  said there have been about 100 less fires for this year, so far, as compared to last year.

He said 234 buildings were destroyed in 2009 and 135, up to now, this year.

Gentle reported that some of the alarms this year were attributed to the El Niño conditions in which grass and garbage caught afire.

He revealed that more people were rendered homeless this year in comparison to last year, 225 in 2010 and 202 in 2009.

He also alluded to the increasing incidents of domestic and property disputes involved and urged that people take precautionary measures against electrical causes which are also on the increase.
Gentle said the GFS, through investigations, established that many persons have resorted to using makeshift electrical devices in their homes, causing overload in the circuit and resulting in burning of internal wiring.
He also warned against people using flambeaux (primitive lamps) and candles whenever there is an electricity outage and risking devastating effects.

Householders need to be more conscious of their electricity usage for domestic purposes, said Gentle.
Meanwhile, about 08:56 h on Thursday last, a blaze, believed to be electrical in origin, razed a dwelling house at Lot 12 Barnwell, East Bank Essequibo, leaving the owner, James Ragnauth and two others homeless but the GFS saved four other buildings.
Gentle said the Quamina Street, Georgetown conflagration, on Tuesday night followed  an incendiary device being hurled into the building which also housed a motorcycle workshop.
He said there was an explosion and the fire, fed by gasolene from the parked motorcycles, spread quickly.
The GFS was, however, able to contain the damage to that building after firemen risked their lives in the effort.
The burnt dwelling house, in which seven persons lived, was at the centre of a property dispute.
Two weeks ago, another dwelling house, owned by the mother of a woman in the GFS ranks, at Canje, Berbice, was gutted by an electrical fire, leaving four persons to find a new  place of residence.
One more recent electrical fire deprived three persons, including a fireman’s father, of their home at Richmond, Essequibo Coast.