-water availability seen as serious problem
A building identified for a fire service at Onverwagt, West Berbice was finally equipped with a tender about four months ago and already it has answered calls to contain grass fires in several areas.

This newspaper was told that fires had erupted in areas including Fort Wellington, Lovely Lass, De Hoop, Mahaica and Bygeval Multilateral School compound.

The tender arrived promptly at the scenes after receiving the calls and managed to control the blazes. Thankfully, the fires have eased because of the recent rainfall.

An official from the Guyana Fire Service who is based at another location advised residents to “burn garbage in small portions and if the fires get out of hand use buckets of water to put them out.”

A fire-fighter prepares to go out after receiving a call about a grass fire.

He also warned them to desist from leaving fires unattended as this is causing most of the grass fires that they have been responding to. The official noted that while the smoke was affecting the residents, houses were also under threat of being burnt.

A tender which has the capacity to hold 400 gallons of water is based at Onverwagt, replacing a Land Rover that was sent initially. The official explained that 250 gallons of water is pumped out per minute to douse a fire which means that the water is exhausted in less than two minutes.

However, he said, “We do not have a direct source of getting water [at the Onverwagt building] and we cannot leave the tank empty; water is our weapon. We should have clean water from the pipes in the tender but we can’t get that so we have to depend on the canals,” he said.

According to him the fire-fighters observed during visits to most of the areas that there is a problem with drainage and “in case of big fires they would have to leave the scene and go a far way to find a canal.”

He also made a call for the authorities to install fire hydrants around Region Five to make fire-fighting easier, lamenting that “in the dry season water is very low in the canals…”

The official also pointed that out that some of the streets have barriers to prevent large vehicles from entering but this could hinder their work. “That can act as a delay because by the time we cut down the barrier it would be too late…”

He said a signboard needs to be installed at the Onverwagt branch so persons can know that the service is available.
Residents had long made a call for a fire service to be established in the region, particularly in West Berbice and now that it is finally here they are relieved. However, a few persons that this newspaper spoke to are not even aware that the fire service is available.
A small tender from the Blairmont Sugar Estate has been assisting in fire-fighting efforts.