By Shirley Thomas

Emotions ran high on Thursday at the Georgetown Public Hospital when relatives showed up to identify relatives burnt to death in the Camp Street riot.Seventeen prisoners are now dead and several others are suffering severe third degree burns, after inmates on Thursday set the Georgetown Prisons alight, protesting among other issues, overcrowding and prolonged delays in having their cases tried.

In what was considered their fiercest act of resistance to incarceration ever at the Camp Street facility, the inmates launched their first attack on Wednesday night by burning mattresses in the cells and intensifying their assault on Thursday. Swift action by the Central Fire Unit of the Fire Department on Wednesday evening put the fire out without casualties. But scarcely had the firefighters finished their mopping up exercise when, around mid-morning, another fire was set in the facility, this time resulting in deaths and serious injury.

The police responded promptly, joining forces with the firefighters, while the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) Medical Corps made available its ambulance to assist the GPHC’s fleet of ambulances in whisking the injured to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH). Around 10:45 hrs, the army ambulance arrived at the Accident and Emergency Unit with the first set of casualties, followed in rapid succession, by another private ambulance and two from the GPH, heralded by the most mournful wail of sirens.

The scene immediately attracted large crowds in the vicinity who encircled the ambulances as the casualties were taken into the hospital. Within minutes a contingent of police ranks was deployed to push the crowd back and maintain law and order, since by then both incensed and sorrowing relatives and friends of the dead and injured had gotten wind of the fact that another fire had erupted and that there were deaths and casualties.

The influx of casualties from the tragedy forced an immediate suspension of medical treatment to other emergency cases at the A&E Unit, and cases were redirected to the Medical Outpatient Unit. For hours, the door to the A&E Department remained locked and under close guard by police and hospital security ranks, even as the police cordoned a large area enclosing the entrance to the Emergency Unit and throughout the day the Burns Care Unit and A&E Department remained under close police watch.

GPHC lock down
Meanwhile, all gates to the compound, except one, were heavily padlocked and overlooked by security ranks. For the remainder of the day, persons braved the sweltering heat of the sun to get glimpses of the patients being brought in and to otherwise satisfy their curiosity.

Reports yesterday said that what was partly responsible for the setting the building ablaze was

an operation by prison authorities, in which they carried out an intensive search for forbidden substances, cellular phones and dangerous implements. Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan was quoted as saying at a Press Conference held Thursday, that: “We have a crisis on our hands. Long delays in trials have caused much frustration and vexation among prisoners.” Late into the afternoon, families with members imprisoned at the institution, restless and uneasy, continued to pace the hospital compound, trying desperately, but in vain, to get past police ranks manning the cordons and occasionally venting their feelings through loud outbursts.

Throughout the day, relatives tearfully appealed to hospital authorities to release the names of the dead and injured, but without success.

By 16:00 they, through some other source, managed to get a few names and hysteria and pandemonium broke out. Some fainted and others wailed. Then as they tried to enter the compound of the mortuary, they were again prevented. As the relatives wailed, mourned and rolled on the ground, the hearse, used an unfamiliar exit and sped away with bodies bundled on each other, but neatly wrapped under a sheet.