Children left alone & overloaded electrical circuits main causes of 261 reported fires in Berbice

By Royan Abrams

The Guyana Fire Service (GFS) throughout the country is celebrating their 42nd fire prevention month under the theme “Fire safety, a collective responsibility for the preservation of life and property” and although the month-long observation is coming to an end, the New Amsterdam fire station along with other fire stations in Berbice will continue to sensitise the general public on prevention and measures to take in the event of a fire.

From January to September of 2016, the fire stations in Berbice have received 261 calls indicating that there is a fire when compared to 255 during the corresponding period last year.

News Room was told that out of the reported fire cases for this year, 55 persons were left homeless while two persons lost their lives as a result of a fire.

Divisional Officer of the Guyana Fire Service Berbice, Kalamadeen Edoo told News Room that most fires were caused by children being left unattended while others were caused as a result of overloading of electrical circuits.

“We observed that people overloading of their circuit whereby they put one to six appliances in one outlet and my advice is that persons should desist from doing so because it can’t contribute to an electrical fire” he added.

Meanwhile, the New Amsterdam Fire Station is presently visiting schools to conduct fire drills and lecture students on how they can prevent a fire from spreading, how they can help rescue someone who might be trapped in a fire and ways to prevent a fire in general.

Only yesterday Friday, October 14, 2016, the New Amsterdam fire station did a demonstration of a rescue operation for students of the Berbice High School and also a demonstration of how fire fighters would respond to a fire as part of their fire prevention month activities.