Explaining to Senior Officers of the Guyana Fire Service that the country is facing challenging times, Minister of Home Affairs, Robeson Benn today said human activities continue to be the primary cause of fires across the country, as he ruled out spontaneous combustion.  

He noted that those actions have resulted in deaths, injuries, and destruction of properties, and continue to impact the environment.

“The impacts of fires that we are seeing are as a result of human activity. There are some talk somewhere; people talk about spontaneous combustion. I will continue to posit that if we look at google and other maps that we have seen from those places, who examine and who represent, and show where the fires are occurring, they are occurring because of human activity. There is not one yet on our territory which we can assign to any spontaneous combustion or meteorite impact. None,” the Home Affairs Minister said 

The Home Affairs Minister the comments while delivering the keynote address at the opening ceremony of the Guyana Fire Service Senior Officers Conference 2024.  

Minister Benn said the Fire Service must fashion its response and preparedness to take account of the reality on the ground. 

He proposed a “Fire Victims Awareness Day” to mark the anniversary of the Mahdia Secondary School Female Dormitory Fire that claimed the lives of 20 children last May. The fire was reportedly an act of arson. A teenage student of the same school is facing murder charges in relation to the deaths.

The Home Affairs Minister said the remembrance day would be a reminder to fire fighters all across the country of their mandate. 

“On that day, we should have pictures and mementos on a place where we could go and remember them, and re-instill, in perhaps in ourselves and remind ourselves, particularly, of our mission, our task, our role, in this particular skilled area, which is so important for development, the development of our country,” he explained. 

He said the Government will continue to invest in the Fire Service and provide it with the assets needed to promote fire safety and prevention.

He said the Government is in talks with the United Kingdom and other international partners, to offer support to the Fire Service. 

“We are out of discussions with United Kingdom and Angloco, we are being retooled with a number of new fire trucks and other assets to bring the Guyana Fire Service into a better position to respond to the issue of fire in a more expert, and experienced way. We are looking forward to their continued collaboration with the other services, the Police Force, the Defence Force, the Guyana Prison Service and other areas in relation to their challenges, the question of training. We have had some engagements with the Brazilians, and there is a discussion underway for a Brazilian team to come and do an assessment in relation to the fires in the south and the coast and other areas,” the Home Affairs Minister said. 

Chief Fire Officer (ag), Gregory Wickham said the Fire Service continues to promote fire prevention and safety in keeping with its mandate.

He said since the start of the year, the Fire Service has ramped up its outreach programmes, going into communities across the country, and speaking not only with local officials, but residents and business operators about the importance of fire safety. 

“We have focused to ensure that every citizen, I reiterate, every citizen become aware of the hazards and what necessary equipment or tool they can use to prevent those hazards from leading to or becoming fires. And so, we are going into each community, and each station would have commenced since from January, going into the different communities. So, you are going to see the fire trucks and it is not that they are selling water but they are conducting the business of fire safety and fire prevention. So, they are going home by home, business by business in order to educate persons,” he explained. 

Wickham said with the El Nino dry weather conditions, the Fire Service is also paying keen attention to areas that are prone to bush or forest fires, and as such, its officers have been visiting farming communities.

In the hinterland, villages are being provided with pumps and tanks while residents are being trained as first responders. 

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