Fire Chief calls for removal of derelict buildings
CHIEF Fire Officer Marlon Gentle said, yesterday, that agencies responsible for derelict buildings in Georgetown should make greater efforts to remove the hazards they pose to life and limb.

This building at King and Robb Streets, Georgetown, has been listed by City Hall as one of the derelict buildings in the city for well over two years. Yesterday, the façade of the building almost came crashing to the ground onto the parapet that is used by hundreds of pedestrians daily.

His exhortation followed an incident, early yesterday morning, at King and Robb Streets, Georgetown, where one such structure caved in from the roof.
What remains of the structure can collapse at any time, posing serious danger to the occupants, other people nearby and daily passersby below.
Gentle said the Guyana Fire Service (GFS) has identified 29 such edifices, since 2008 and reported them to the City Engineer’s Department for action to be taken. But, so far, nothing has been done about them.
He said, of those categorised as dangerous, two were destroyed by fire, one of them at High and Barrack Streets, Kingston and the other at Broad and Lombard Streets.
Gentle said three more were demolished by persons who would have acquired them by purchase or otherwise. But there is still concern, because there is another at Robb and Bourda Streets, the old Bedford School, which needs to be torn down, given the danger it poses.

VAGRANTS
He said:“Works need to be done to remove these buildings out of the way. Most of these buildings are either occupied by vagrants or abandoned. We don’t see why these buildings cannot be torn down since most cannot be repaired.”
Gentle expressed frustration because, from time to time, the GFS comes in for criticisms for inaction as regards the derelicts and he pointed out that they have been making recommendations, at many fora, for actions to get them out of the way but, to date, little or nothing hss been done.
He recalled that, last year, a building, which was condemned and leaning, fell and killed a man on D’Urban Street.
Gentle also said it is necessary to dismantle an old lodge building in Bent Street, which poses great danger to people in that block, because, if a fire takes place there, the entire area will be affected.
But City Hall Public Relations Officer Royston King informed the Guyana Chronicle that there are several constraints preventing the Engineer’s Department from destroying that and other derelicts.