CHIEF Fire Officer Marlon Gentle has said the fire that destroyed Addil Rahim’s Lot 123 Block ‘Y’, Diamond New Housing Scheme, East Bank Demerara home on Old Year’s Day seems to be electrical in nature.

Gentle said that once a fire has started and has been burning for some time, the Guyana Fire Service could do little else other than contain it.

Home owner Addil Rahim has expressed displeasure with the time the GFS allegedly took to respond to the fire call, but Gentle told this publication that the GFS received the first fire call at 09:45 hours through its 912 system, and at 09:47 hours the Diamond fire tender was on the scene, and it was observed that the top floor of the two-storey incomplete house was already fully alight, with flames coming through the windows.

Gentle said that according to the GFS’s Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), two other units from West Ruimveldt and Central Station in G/town were dispatched to the scene, and they assisted in ‘mopping up’ the fire, since there was little they could do but contain it.

Gentle explained that within a minute after the first fire call had been received, several more calls were received by the GFS; and within three minutes, the first fire tender was on scene.
He said the owner and the building’s two other occupants were not at home at the time of the blaze, but a construction worker was there — since the bottom flat of the house is under construction — and when neighbours alerted him to the conflagration, fire and smoke were already coming through the windows.

Gentle said the fire resulted from unsafe use of electricity, and that people are still utilising electricity in a very careless and callous manner; but it is to be noted that once a fire has started and has been burning for some time, it is difficult to extinguish.

He pointed out that, in that circumstance, the GFS can only contain the blaze. He said most fires are caused by human activity, and he urged all persons to do the right thing, especially when utilising electricity, to prevent fires from starting. (Michel Outridge)