Minister of Home Affairs, Oneidge Walrond, has acknowledged that additional resources for the Guyana Fire Service has been yielding results, with more fires being contained along with faster response times from the Guyana Fire Service.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Fire Service’s 69th anniversary route march this morning, the Minister said the Government has been expanding the fire services fleet to rise to the challenge as the country expands.

The Fire Service has received a new fleet of pickups, ambulances, fire tenders, fire browsers and fire boats.

“These investments are not just so we can have a glorious parade, they actually help with improve our response times, for example the fire station in Campbellville, they were able to respond in under two minutes to the fire we had in Sophia at the Children home, so that avoided catastrophic results if it has to come from further. So, this is what these investments are doing, reduce response time to help and get to the scene of the fire much faster,” the Minister said.

The Minister noted that the investments should not be seen in isolation. She said the Fire Service has historically faced difficulties in containing fires because of lack of resources.

She said the acquisition of the new equipment and their placements are imperative to decreasing the response time going forward.

“I know for sure is has come from having the assets, having the equipment needed, the water, the resources, the fire hydrants. We have an aggressive fire hydrant programme, where the old ones are being restored and the new ones being replaced as communities expand. So, all of that has helped and you are seeing the benefits,” Ms. Walrond said.

Meanwhile, Chief Fire Officer, Gregory Wickham said that the Fire Service has also seen tremendous turnaround times recently with the construction of new Fire stations and a more equipped force with additional human resources.

“Like Minister said many years ago, there were just about 4-5 fire tenders but I want to applaud the commitment of the government of Guyana for allowing us to have all these assets so the people. So, I want to applaud that the government for support and is because of the support that we were able to reach fire scenes and extinguish fires within a very very short period of time.

Mr. Wickham said the fire hydrant programme is being expanded to every community throughout the country, noting that the end goal is to ensure that every community in Guyana is organised to respond to fires.

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