Fire Department warns against dangers of squibs and explosives

By Shirley Thomas

THE Central Fire Department has warned against discharging squibs, firecrackers and bombs, or any such explosive devices, particularly where there are networks of live electrical wires, noting that once it strikes the electrical wires it could be a recipe for disaster.
This call was recently made on Wednesday by Fire Prevention Officer Sheldon Sauns, in an interview with the Pepperpot Magazine. Giving an outline of the nature of fires, how they are caused and what can be done to prevent them, Sauns declared: “What persons ought to know is that fire is a chemical union between oxygen, fuel and heat. Meanwhile, a squib is a device that comprises a flammable material. With any of these constituents being present in their right proportion, then a fire would occur. Hence, we need to be very careful and ensure that we avoid a combination of the three.”

The fire prevention officer expressed that over the past year, the Fire Service responded to numerous fires as a result of children playing with squibs – whether inside or outside of their homes.

The discharging of squibs near live electrical wires

Alluding to the scenario where some young men and boys discharge squibs above housetops or over electrical wires, the officer warned that this is a dangerous practice and can lead to the complete obliteration of the property to which the electrical power is being fed, if not expeditiously dealt with.

Referring to it as virtually a recipe for disaster, Sauns said “If you have a combination of energy where there is an electrical device and then you are going to throw a squib towards that device, then you have three things: an explosion, the arching and sparking of whatever the electrical device and fire in its full fury.
He observed that in homes today, there are breaker/panel boxes or devices which deal with the smooth flow of electricity, warning: “Once that system is interrupted, the fluctuation of electricity can cause an overload in the electrical circuit, after which it can develop into a fire. This is because the electricity would have no feasible means to be distributed and so it could escape and develop into a fire.”

Against this backdrop, the fire prevention officer also called on persons who are so inclined, to desist from going on to stealing electricity, and also interrupting electrical distribution to their home or homes.

Beware 
· Sauns, made a call for persons to desist from tampering with electrical distribution wires and desist from overloading electrical circuits and points within their homes or businesses, since such malpractice can develop into large fires, affecting not only individuals, but the economic growth of our country in some ways.

Meanwhile, substantiating the fire official’s admonition about the dangers of throwing squibs above, beside or around electric wires, the Guyana Chronicle on December 27, 2006, covered a story about the complete destruction of the home of an elderly septuagenarian couple, Pastor and Mrs. Neville Adolphus of South Ruimveldt whose home was razed on Boxing Night 2006, as they joyfully celebrated their wedding anniversary with other family members at a son’s home in Kitty.

In the height of jubilation on that Boxing Night the couple received a message that their home at South Ruimveldt was on fire, then hurried down, only to behold the smouldering embers. They lost everything they had worked for and acquired through the years. Painfully, they subsequently learnt that the building went up in flames after a squib thrown by someone had hit a live wire, paving the way for the conflagration.

Meanwhile, the CPO recalled that some years ago a ban was placed on squibs, but was unable to say to what degree of success that ban has been realised adding, once there is a ban on it, there is expected to be penalties.

But even though the sounding of squibs at Christmas adds to the fun and excitement associated with the season, the dangers associated with it by far outweigh the good; hence, it should be revisited.

Among other instances cited, that drive home the dangers associated with throwing of squibs and flares are: 
* The risk of heart attacks to which persons with heart diseases are exposed, when such heavy sounding devices are set alight and released into the air, (as attested to by health authorities)
* The fear they drive into dumb animals such as dogs and cats that immediately go into tremor and hiding on hearing them explode.

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