Fire and hydrants

The irony of the Home Affairs Minister and the fire chief standing proudly in front of gleaming fire-fighting units the day before a devastating fire raced through a section of Regent Street will not escape the attention of many. It is akin to the syndrome of years earlier where some bureaucrats felt that providing new, expensive schools, even if ill-designed and poorly constructed, would miraculously improve student performance and encourage teachers to stay in the system.  That was, of course, a fallacy and it is much the same with the new fire-fighting machinery.

Undoubtedly in a well-functioning fire service state-of-the-art tenders with hoists and the like are indispensable to fighting blazes of the type that have historically bedevilled Georgetown and the country’s other municipalities. However, what good would these tenders and trucks serve without the key fire-fighting ingredient – water?

From all accounts of Friday’s fire, the fire-fighters on the scene performed heroically and prevented the fire from causing even more destruction. They are to be complimented for their marvellous work. Clearly bravery and technique were not lacking. What was definitely in short and inconsistent supply was water. Aside from the problem of quickly accessing a fire site in the congested commercial sector the longstanding problem for the fire service has been accessing a steady, high pressure source of water to quickly neutralize fires.

This is not a problem that cropped up yesterday. It is something that has plagued fire-fighting for the last couple of decades and is a dilemma that has faced this government squarely in the face for the last 17 years. The metaphor for this anomie is the fire hydrant.  In the days when the fire service functioned at a much higher level all of the fire hydrants would be routinely checked to ensure that water for fire-fighting was accessible and if not the water utility would be advised as the hydrants formed the frontline  defence against fires.

Nowadays, when the tenders have extinguished their limited supply of water the only recourse is a frenetic foray to the nearest trench for a viable stream of water. This is a reckless and dangerous plight for a fire-prone capital city to be in. In the current parched conditions there couldn’t have been much water available in the canals on Friday and this would explain the weak streams of water that were frequently ranged against this voracious fire.  What would have happened if Georgetown had been in the midst of a searing drought for months? Presumably GWI would have been forced to channel all of the city’s water to one sector to fight a fire.  Indeed, on Friday it did divert expensive water to aid the fire-fighters.

This is not the answer.  The solution is a comprehensive revamping of the fire hydrants and ensuring that they have an adequate supply of water. Many of the major fires that have occurred in the capital over the last decade and a half have occurred within close proximity to hydrants which sadly could provide as much moisture as early morning dew. They hydrants stand as silent sentinels of a breakdown that defies common sense and highlights a fundamental failure of this government. Who has responsibility for the hydrants and how they could be supplied with water without breaking GWI’s bank has engaged the decision-makers of PPP/C governments for many years. They have signally failed to address the problem. The city, GWI and the fire service have haggled interminably about addressing this great deficiency even while Georgetown and other parts of the country burn. It is testament to a gross failure of governance that this problem has not yet been resolved and that hydrants have become victims of road contractors who have damaged and even destroyed them.

It had been a matter of consideration for the Disciplined Forces Commission and surveys suggest that only a fraction of those in the city are still functional.  When he was appointed to the post of Home Affairs, Minister Rohee had commendably established a Fire Advisory Board which had on its plate among other things the question of the fire hydrants. It is now high time that Minister Rohee pilots a bill in parliament that would establish the primacy of the humble hydrant in the fight against fires and to work out with his colleague in the water sector how they would be supplied. In the light of the enormous cost of piped and well water there had been consideration in other jurisdictions about running a separate system for hydrants using river water or sea water solely. Given the corrosiveness of the sea water this would have required careful thinking and planning.

It is this careful thinking and planning that is required to empower the fire service to discharge its functions optimally.   It cannot continue its bumbling runs to the canals. Too much precious time is lost in fighting fires.  In January this year in New Amsterdam, because water was not available from hydrants, fire-fighters had to clear overgrowth and debris from a canal before they could tap an adequate supply. The hydrants might not have saved the four people who died in the heavily-grilled house but at least the fire-fighters would have been in the thick of action much earlier.

Spanking new tenders are welcome but the government must get cracking with the fire hydrants and this responsibility is Minister Rohee’s.