(DEMERARA WAVES)At least eight persons, including four firefighters, narrowly escaped injury or death late Sunday afternoon at the corner of Lamaha and Albert Streets, Georgetown. Several areas were almost immediately plunged into indefinite blackout because of downed electricity cables. The hire care, HB 5652, was travelling east along Lamaha Street when it collided with a fire tender that was rushing north along Albert Streetto the scene of a bush fire near the Guyana Industrial  Training Centre.
Eyewitnesses say the car did not heed the fire tender’s siren. The driver of the fire tender avoided what could have been a major accidentby swerving right.
The fire truck with the four fighters knocked down an electricity pole with high tension wires, smashed the Albert and Lamaha Streets bridge rails and ended up in the canal. Eyewitnesses and a fire fighter said the firemen exited the damaged tender and extinguished the blaze with buckets.
The four occupants of the taxi were not injured. Police rushed to the scene and arranged for that badly damaged vehicle to be taken to the Brickdam police station.
Nearby residents say the constant fires in that area are a nuisance, particularly to young children and persons with respiratory ailments like asthma.
This accident now means that the Guyana Fire Service now has one less fire tender as the country heads into a general election some time before year-end.