Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee’s ‘baptism of fire’ occurred when he was sworn into his present portfolio in September 2006. On that same afternoon, twelve days after the general elections, a building in the Guyana Elections Commission compound was burnt down. Now, three years later, it has been determined that the fire was likely the result of arson.
Rohee re-established the Fire Advisory Board the next month. Since then, new stations have been built at Bartica and Rose Hall and, as recently as October, he handed over water-tenders, a water-carrier and an auxiliary vehicle to the Guyana Fire Service. These have not been sufficient to stop the firestorm of arson that continues to destroy government buildings, demolish private homes and degut Georgetown’s central business district.
According to a Government Information Agency statement, Rohee revisited the scene of the 18th October fire in Regent Street which destroyed four stores and which followed another on 9th October that destroyed three stores. He is reported to have stated that the incidents “roused a lot of comments and suspicions” about whether these fires could be deemed “co-incidental.”
Arson is a major public safety problem. Another GINA statement reported that the Guyana Fire Service’s investigation reports determined that the recent fires at the Richard Ishmael Secondary School and the Supreme Court were both maliciously set. The Regent Street fire on 18th October, similarly, was also deliberately set.
The extraordinary incidence of arson has many implications for public safety, private enterprise and the insurance industry, especially in a city where most of the older buildings are made of wood. Handing over a cheque as a payout for one of the properties destroyed by fire, Howard Cox, an official of the Hand-in-Hand Fire Insurance Company, announced that “the insurance industry has some serious concerns on the whole Fire Service apparatus.” He pointed particularly to the importance of the availability of water.
The Fire Service has to face several burning issues in dealing with fires set by arsonists particularly because they are usually worse than those which occur accidentally. In some cases, the intention has been to kill the occupants of the buildings and, once started with very flammable materials, fires can spread quickly and raze small structures totally.
The Minister must approach the arson threat in a holistic manner. He must first resolve the elementary issue of unserviceable fire hydrants. The prompt and reliable supply of water is of paramount importance and the use of foul, oily water from the city’s canals to extinguish fires − the favourite expedient − can also contaminate crime scenes making detection of incriminating materials difficult. Rohee’s response to this decades-old question, unfortunately, was that the Ministry was “addressing this issue” and that more water tankers had been imported to assist the fire tenders.
The Minister also needs to consider the fact that, without a forensic laboratory to analyse materials, it would be difficult to prove arson. Investigators have often come upon substances or materials which are likely to have caused fires but they did not have the means to test those materials scientifically.
The Minister must implement additional measures including enforcing the compliance of proprietors of buildings with fire safety regulations; demarcating fire lanes where vehicle parking is prohibited and mandating the equipping of public buildings with fire alarms and fire-fighting apparatus.
Public awareness about arson is essential. It would be informative to publish the official Fire Service investigation reports into the fires that destroyed the properties belonging to the Ministries of Agriculture, Education, Finance, Health, Housing, Local Government and Public Works since February 1996.
