FIRE hydrants will be placed within the fifteen wards of Georgetown and members of the communities will be responsible for protecting them from vandals, chief Executive Officer of the Guyana Water Inc, Dr. Richard Van-West Charles has said.He made the comments during a news conference at GWI’s boardroom, Vlissengen Road, Bel Air Park, Georgetown on Thursday. The Guyana Fire Service and GWI will soon sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to move forward with the initiative. Van-West Charles said the hydrants must be protected from vagrants who damage them to retrieve and sell the copper.

“The people in the communities must also assist in the protection of the hydrants…We understand the importance of the fire service having access to water to perform their role, not singularly from open trenches but hydrants,” he said.

Mr Van-West Charles said that over the years there has been negligence in the maintenance of fire hydrants,particularly in Georgetown. He said GWI has completed the rehabilitation of over 400 hydrants.
“As we go through the city, we are discovering more and more hydrants;there is probably an estimated 800 hydrants in the city, and we are gradually discovering where they are for the purpose of rehabilitation,” he said.

The GWI boss said that throughout the country where there are fire stations,GWI will address services as adaptations are being made to provide engines with the required water supply. He said the company will have to work with the Housing Ministry to address the need for hydrants in new communities that emerge, while ensuring water is available for fire tenders.

Meanwhile, GWI Divisional Manager, Curtis Niles, said fire hydrants will be placed in front of all of GWI’s production centres and wells in the event that there are fires in the respective areas.

“In central Georgetown,we have been able to rehabilitate hydrants on Church Street, Lamaha, Vlissengen Road, Hadfield Street, Water Street; we are going a little more south to have the hydrants into Turkeyen. We will also have to work with government and other agencies in equipping various areas with fire hydrants,” Nile said.

Recently, the fire service has had to battle several fires without the use of any fire hydrants, turning their attention rather to sourcing water from trenches. “We have seven buildings being severely damaged this year, as against six buildings last year (corresponding period), and nine buildings slightly damaged, against eight buildings. In other words, 39 buildings were involved in fires this year, and 32 were involved last year (corresponding period), just a slight increase of seven buildings,” the Fire Chief pointed out.