– quick action by fire service saves DPP’s office
– Min. Benn says recent fires could be politically motivated

THE Guyana Police Force suffered another massive blow on Saturday after a fire of unknown origin completely destroyed the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) which is housed at Police Headquarters, Eve Leary, Kingston, Georgetown, but quick action by the Guyana Fire Service saved the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

Ranks from the fire service and police force were in a race against time to save tons of critical documents from the office of the DPP which is joined to the OPR building.

According to Fire Chief Kalamadeen Edoo, the fire started in the western side of the building where ranks from Police Headquarters reside; it then spread to the OPR building and then the construction department.

The fire service received the report at around13:53hrs and according to the Fire Chief, five fire tenders were deployed to the scene to control the blaze. Upon arrival, they met low water pressure at the hydrant in the vicinity.

“We had an early part in the initial stage [where] there was low pressure coming from the hydrant, but as the process continued, we informed GWI and they ended up boosting up the pressure,” Edoo said.

POLITICAL LINK
This fire follows on the heels of another massive fire that completely razed the Brickdam Police Station in October. As a result, Minister of Home Affairs Robeson Benn believes there is a possibility that the fires are politically motivated as he referenced recent threats made by Guyanese living in the United States.

“It appears that we are experiencing a trial by fire again in Guyana. I have said publicly that it appears that a subliminal message is being put around the country starting from some pyrotechnic- minded person in the United States and that maybe perhaps, much more than likely, that the incidents that we see and the timings at which they occur, are related to those more than subliminal messages about ‘Georgetown will burn if the PPP don’t do whatever’,” Minister Benn told the press at the scene of the fire..

President Dr. Irfaan Ali voiced a similar opinion when the fire destroyed the Brickdam Police Station, but he made clear his intention to solicit international support to investigate the matter.

“Why am I bothered? This is coming on the heels of threats made on the capital city from New York and this is not the first time and I’m not going to take this lightly; I am going to ask for international support to investigate, to follow any lead, and to ensure that our capital remains safe,” the President stated.

President Ali noted that government is committed to ensuring that its public assets are protected and will be utilising local and international resources to ensure that instances of arson, especially on public buildings, are stopped and the perpetrators brought to justice.

‘WE WILL STAND FIRM’
Meanwhile, Minister Benn on Saturday reiterated that the government will not allow intimidation to hinder its plans for the development of the country. He noted that plans will be put in place to promote more vigilance at public buildings.

“We will stand firm; we will make sure the work of our government and the development of our country proceeds. Going forward, we have to be much more vigilant throughout all of the services we provide and we have to make everyone aware of the risk fire poses -not only to the lives of individual people and their employment, but also the proper functioning and the working of our government and our achieving our pathway of sustainable development.”

DISARRAY AT DPP
Even as ranks were able to save critical and important documents from the office of the DPP, Minister Benn noted that the entire operations of the office will remain in complete disarray for the next few weeks.

In a bid to save the files from the massive blaze, staff of the DPP’s Chambers, as well as ranks of the GPF, supported the firefighters in their efforts and removed drawers from file cabinets and piled them into police vehicles to be relocated to a secure location.

Employees were seen throwing documents through windows from the top floor of the building in an effort to save them from the fire.
Minister Benn noted that the fire has halted the operations of the DPP.

“It puts the operations of the OPR in disarray also the operations of the DPP chambers are also in disarray and some confusion. The files and documents would have to be taken to somewhere where they would have to be [sorted] and put them in a condition where they could be accessed properly.”

Benn further added: “Basically, the operations remaining to this building are completely perturbated and confusion from now on, they’ll have to spend the next week or two putting files and things properly together and to get the computer systems and so back online to be able to access files which are online.”