THE Guyana Fire Service (GFS) recently held its Senior Officers’ Conference at which Minister of Home Affairs Robeson Benn was guest of honour.  Minister Benn, before giving his address,  took the opportunity of presenting the service with four new fire tenders to strengthen their fleet to 38.  Following the minister’s address, Fire Chief Kamaladeen Edoo rolled out a 10-point plan for the reform and strengthening of the GFS.

The GFS  has a long history, almost coeval with the life of the colony of British Guiana, since  almost as soon as the colony became British in 1815, the authorities established a Fire Brigade, initially  manned by volunteers from among the British colonists.  The Brigade used fire reels which were long lengths of hose wrapped in the form of a reel and assisted by a pump to get water into the hose.  These reels were pulled manually or by horse to the scene of the fire and were fairly effective, since most houses were one or two-storeyed wooden houses and the town was small, consisting of a few streets.  The newly established Town Council also got into the act of fire-protection by planting trees along the parapets of every street, which acted as fire breaks and crisscrossing the town with canals which both acted as drainage catchments and also as reservoirs for public use and also to provide water in time of fires.  By the middle of the 20th century, most of these canals were filled up forming avenues or walkways between the two carriageways, leaving six canals to drain the town, examples being the Sussex Street and Church Street canals.  When running piped water from the Lamaha was supplied to the town,  conduits, “fire hydrants” were established on the mains in various parts of the town which the Fire Brigade could tap for use.

In the 20th century, the central government assumed control of the Fire Brigade which was renamed ‘Guyana Fire Service,’ since it could be called out of Georgetown and the Fire Service became one of the most popular government departments.  It had modernised its equipment and training and was fairly effective in outing fires.  Citizens appreciated the dedication of the firemen and the risks to life and limb they took to save others’ property and lives.  They were also appreciative of the help the service was willing to render to the population in many other ways such as medical first-aid, an ambulance service, rescuing children who had climbed trees and could not get down, or getting into houses and recovering keys of persons who had locked themselves out of their houses and so on.  Sometimes sufferers would complain that the GFS did not arrive in a timely manner to save their properties or they had no water and so on, but the service was always willing to listen to complaints and improve.

Minister Benn was forthright in his address and urged his listeners to provide a better service: “Our Service” he said, “is a professional one and we need to set aside some of the negative and confusing issues which impede our providing the requisite service . . . We need to improve the esprit de corps of the Fire Service and get rid of issues of intrigued corruption and all other issues which we know are there as in other agencies.”

Minister Benn then went on to enjoin that women be welcomed to join the operational facet of the service and that they should do this without any semblance of discrimination and abuse.  He went on to point out the important fact that buildings of several storeys high are coming up in several parts of Guyana and that such buildings should equip themselves with sprinkler systems.  He also took the opportunity of calling upon homeowners to invest in smoke alarms and fire extinguishers for their own safety and that of their properties.
Fire Chief Kamaladeen Edoo’s address dealt strictly with the business of the conference.  He laid out a 10-point programme that would inform the work of the GFS  for the next year and called upon his colleagues to help perfect   a strategic plan  that they could implement new strategies that would not only boost the image of the GFS, but make it more efficient and effective.

The first item of his plan which Fire Chief Edoo outlined was the modernisation and renovation of the existing fire stations, including the GFS headquarters at Stabroek, Georgetown.  This station is in the most congested part of the city and this makes it impossible for the station to respond with the speed with which it would wish.  With the relocation of this station, the service would be able to respond much quicker to calls.  As part of this plan of dealing with stations, the Fire Chief gave the welcome indication that fire stations will be established at Mahdia, Lethem, Mabaruma and at Eccles on the East Bank of Demerara.

Other items of the 10-point plan were greater collaboration and cooperation with other government agencies, especially the Central Housing and Planning Authority and the Mayor and City Council of Georgetown, to ensure that they effectuate greater compliance with fire-prevention methods in housing construction which come under their purview.  There would also be established a Legal Department;  an Occupational Safety and Health Department;  training courses for the staff, both locally and internationally;  a Public Relations Unit;  operational pole training for all staff;  and expansion of the emergency medical service.

Fire Chief Edoo concluded: “We recognise that competence and enhanced performance could only be realised if structural changes are  taking place,  During our deliberations, we will certainly fine-tune and consider in greater detail our 10-point plan.  The GFS is committed to improving its performance and the provision of the best service to the nation.”