By Ariana Gordon
The officer who led efforts to put out fires during the March prison riots Monday said he was scared, and his life and those of other officers were threatened as they tried to fight the deadly inferno from outside the prison walls. Compton Sparman, the Officer-in-Charge of Operations, Guyana Fire Service, Monday testified before the three-man Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the Camp Street riots that left 17 prisoners dead, describing a situation of panic and chaos that left him and the other officers traumatized.
The prisoners were killed at the height of the riots on March 3. Prisoners lit approximately 15 fires in the Capital ‘A’ Division of the penitentiary.
As the firemen tried to put out the fires, missiles were hurled at them.
Officer Sparman, a resident of Albouystown, said prisoners told him that he will be dealt with when they get out of prison.
However, he said the threats and stones that were being hurled at the firemen did not deter them from putting out the fires.
“We (stood) our ground and did what we had to do,” Sparman declared. He said the prisoners resisted the efforts of the firemen to put out the fires, and they even went as far as to state why the fires were lit.
For every fire that was put out, Sparman said, another was lit.
“The inmates were saying ‘we have no problem with y’all’ noting that they wanted their voices heard.
“In other words they were asking us not to out the fire,” said the officer.
“As we put them (the fires) out they were relighting them.” He said that the inmates continuously threw rocks at the firemen, resulting in one person being injured.
“They were the confined ones…they were abusive, cussing, threatening and so on. They wanted their side to be heard.”
Sparman made it clear that the prisoners “were behaving bad” and he “felt threatened simply because if these inmates were to get out of their cells, if it was breached, we would have been the targets obviously because we were extinguishing the fires that they set for their own reasons.”
Sparman said the fires were lit with “small combustibles” which appeared to be bed sheets, and clothing. The fires on that night were “small and it wasn’t a threat to the extent that they can get out of control. They were small fires.”
According to Sparman, he observed that the fires were lit to the front and back of Capital ‘A’ even as the inmates lit paper and threw them outside onto the rail and balcony of the Division.
“They were using mattresses to block the water from getting into the areas (where the fires were concentrated),” he added. Asked whether the March 2 fires posed threats to the other buildings within the penitentiary, Sparman said, “Once it got out of control, lives could have been lost… and it could have spread to other areas that consisted of wood.”
The string of fires was extinguished just before midnight on March 2 and firefighters had put a standby system in place in the event the prisoners lighted other fires.
Luckily, the standby equipment was in place on March 3 when the prison riots continued and escalated.
Sparman, who has three and a half decades of experience, told the Commission that when he arrived at the Georgetown Prison on March 3, after putting out the many fires close to midnight the night before, he was “scared.”
He said the situation was nothing like the previous night. The entire Capital ‘A’ Division was engulfed and he heard prisoners screaming.
“When I got there, the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) were already kicked in. I immediately entered the prison environment, the entire Capital ‘A’ block was on fire. I was scared because I knew right away that it was serious; I saw the entire block was on fire and I knew it was serious,” he recounted.
The experience was described as traumatic by Sparman, who also noted that due to security reasons, firefighters were forced to battle the fire from outside of the penitentiary. He told the Commission that he spoke with Deputy Director of Prisons, Gladwin Samuels, about the situation and asked him why the prisoners were not coming out of the engulfed Division. Sparman said that he was not in a position to see why the prisoners were refusing to come out.
“At the time there was a lot of noise and inmates were banging on the door.”
He said the “extensive flames” and limited oxygen in the Division resulted in the death of the seventeen inmates.
“…they were burning; that’s why they were behaving in that manner,” Sparman said. He explained that, unlike the night of March 2 when the place was cooler, March 3 was much hotter and the limited air space within the prison Division did not help.
He said firefighters were in “defense mode” given the mature of the situation. “The SOPs kicked in… the same SOPs we used Wednesday night we used on Thursday. Only difference was that the fire was larger.”
“We were forced to go into the defence mode from the inception because it was a penal institution,” the Commission was informed. Sparman said approximately three inmates were saved because they followed the guidance of the firefighters.
After the fire was controlled, the Officer-in-Charge of Operations said he was able to enter the prison compound where he saw “lots of bodies near the door”.
He noted that his officers were as emotional as he was. “It affects me as a fire officer; I saved people from burning buildings. Why these inmates would want to stay in an inferno…more so behaving in that manner?”

The officer was asked to state the adequacy of resources available to fight the fire on March 3. He told the Commission that he and his team had sufficient resources to fight the fire, and at no point were they out of water.
“Water was available at all times,” he stated. Sparman, who is in charge of all fire stations within ‘A’ Division and those at Mahaica, Diamond, Timehri and Linden, added that resources were pooled from several locations.
Additionally, he explained that it would have been best to fight the fire internally. But unfortunately, because of security protocols, the firefighters were unable to gain access to the prison facility.
The officer explained that it is standard that in certain situations permission must be granted for members of the Guyana Fire Service to enter premises. He made note of Prison facilities and embassies. He did not state that there are written rules, but noted that it is “convention” for permission to be granted. “We cannot run into the prison,” said Sparman, who noted that it was the advice of the Deputy Director of Prisons that was followed as “he was the officer on the ground”.

The scene in Capital ‘A’ after the fire was described as “traumatic” by the officer, who noted that in all his years as a fireman he had never seen anything like that which transpired on March 3.
“I’ve never seen that… it was one of confusion, one of chaos…” he said noting that he and the team of firefighters on duty received counselling.