THE Guyana Fire Service has been given the green light to employ and train an additional 84 men and women to become firefighters. This is according to Chief Fire Officer Marlon Gentle, in a recent interview with the Guyana Chronicle newspaper. At the time witnessing a stimulus exercise involving officers of the Fire Service as part of an exchange programme between the Guyana Fire Service and the British Fire and Rescue Service, Gentle said that having the adequate number of firefighting ranks is very important in firefighting, and continues to play a major and important role. Moreover, the right number of firefighters is integral in perfecting the science of firefighting.

He said the additional ranks will be trained and utilized to staff the other fire stations which have been built over the last four or five years. Approval was given some time ago for their hiring.

Among the stations that came into being over the last four or five years were those at Mahaica, Rose Hall Town, Bartica, Onverwagt, and the soon-to-be-operational Diamond. The additional 84 ranks will bring the number of firefighters to 511, the required amount for the department to function effectively in terms of human resources.

Gentle said there are minor works to be completed on the Diamond Fire Station before it is handed over; and the Guyana Fire Service (GFS) continues to pay very close attention to the training of firefighters. According to him, there is also a package being developed for fire investigators to do some work, as the development of a laboratory is being eyed; therefore, there is need to have the right complement of staff to enable the GFS to deal with the challenges.

Last week, the GFS ranks participated in a stimulus exercise which should initially have been held last year, had some internal and external constrains not been faced by the service, making it impossible for the training to commence. Among those constraints was the Linden uprising, in which residents in that community protested Government’s proposed hike in electricity tariffs.