Home Minister absolves Fire Service from responsibility for Mahdia Dorms fire safety

Last Updated on Tuesday, 23 January 2024, 17:05 by Denis Chabrol

-Fire Service to acquire new vehicles

Chief Fire Officer Gregory Wickham and Home Affairs Minister Robeson Benn

Home Affairs Minister Robeson Benn on Tuesday said the Guyana Fire Service (GFS) was not to be blamed for the low level of fire safety at the Mahdia Secondary School dormitories where 20 children were burnt to death last May.

“I want to say, not simply in defence of the Guyana Fire Service, that the Guyana Fire Service, under the protocols established, having given the reports in respect of doing improvements in relation to fire safety, does not have the responsibility or did not have the responsibility to do those things themselves,” he said during debate on the 2024 National Budget.

Instead, he said it was the responsibility of the ministry to ensure that the findings and recommendations of a Fire Service inspection were implemented. “It is incumbent on the householder or the owner of the building or whoever is the agency which owns the building to put those things in place for follow-up inspections by the Guyana Fire Service,” he added.  After inspecting the Mahdia Secondary School dormitories, Sub-Officer of the Mahdia Fire Station Ryan Scott had submitted a report to the Chief Fire Office and the Regional Education Officer. Under Guyana’s regional administrative system, the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development and the Regional Councils are responsible for the various sectors.

The Home Affairs Minister made no mention of Chief Fire Officer, Gregory Wickham who was cited by the Commission of Inquiry for dereliction of duty in connection with a report on the level of fire safety at the Mahdia Dormitories less than two months before the inferno on May 21, 2023. Nineteen girls and the son of a dormitory employee perished in the fire that the COI said was intentionally set. A 15-year old student has been charged with 20 counts of murder.

The COI heaped criticism on the Chief Fire Officer for failing to take considerable action based on Mr Scott’s reports. “It is expected that the head of the fire service of any country, being in possession of reports such as these, would go beyond the bounds of duty and service to ensure compliance therewith. This we feel, in all circumstances, was lacking from the Chief Fire Officer,” states the COI. Mr Scott had also dispatched two other reports on the condition of the lone fire tender at Mahdia, and the Fire Station’s need for several pieces of equipment.

Mr Benn on Monday told Demerara Waves Online News that the Commission of Inquiry Report would be reviewed in another month before Mr Wickham’s future is decided. At the same time, he said Mr Wickham was “a bit inarticulate” in his testimony before the three-member Inquiry Commission.

According to the Home Affairs Minister, his predecessor in the A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) administration, Khemraj Ramjattan, had received a report about the state of fire safety at school dormitories especially those in the interior and then there had been reports that had been requested by the Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand.

He said after the Fire Service received a delayed call, firefighters arrived on the scene when the building was well alight. Despite constraints, he said fire fighters rescued children from the building.

Since the fire, Mr Benn said the Guyana Fire Service , at the request of the Home Affairs Ministry, has supplied each dormitory and mainly interior schools with fire extinguishers, smoke alarms, fireballs and sand buckets to prevent fires and reviewed practices and knowledge about fire.

Meanwhile, the Home Minister said the Guyana Fire Service would be acquiring brand new firefighting equipment from the British manufacturer, Angloco.

“We are working with Angloco in relation to getting a complete new set of fire trucks along with the requisite spares because maintenance is indeed a problem,” he said. “We are buying new vehicles- water carriers. We are buying a new fire boat,” he told the 65-seat House.

Already, the  Fire Service has bought a new crash tender for the Eugene F’ Correia International Airport which was being housed in a new fire station there.

For several years now, the GFS had been acquiring used water tenders and other fire fighting vehicles that had resulted in increased malfunctions, downtime and the eventually their abandonment.