Silence
Editorial
Stabroek News
November 21, 2003
It is now more than a week since three of the city's major business establishments were razed by fire. Owners of those premises, observers on the scene, and the public at large are of the view that the blaze could have been contained at a much earlier stage, before it wrought such destruction. Despite this, however, there has been absolute silence on the subject from the Guyana Fire Service (GFS), the Ministry of Home Affairs, and the two utilities which also have a part to play in fighting fires in the urban areas. On Wednesday, Guyana Water Inc (GWI) did indicate that it would release a statement yesterday; at the time of writing this had not yet been received, but assuming that GWI was as good as its word, it could still hardly be accused of having responded in a timely fashion.
Of all the services, the GFS is notorious for its reluctance to speak, no matter how major the fire, and no matter how important the ramifications issuing therefrom. Even the much maligned Guyana Police Force, whose shortcomings are well known, has made demonstrable efforts in recent times to make itself more accessible to the media, and to answer queries put to it by reporters. The most that the public has heard to date from the fire service, was a release from GINA last Friday evening, containing reported statements and direct quotes from Mr Carlyle Washington, the Fire Chief. That release gave an account of events which beg for investigation. Is this the reason why the head of our fire department is incommunicado?
And what about the Ministry of Home Affairs, so voluble on some topics, but also silent where this fire is concerned? After all the hyperbole about the new tenders which were donated by the British in October 2002, will the Ministry please tell us whether the GFS is adequately equipped to fight a major fire in Georgetown. If it isn't, will it be so good as firstly, to tell people what the deficiencies are, and secondly, what urgent moves it is making to remedy the problem. If the GFS does have sufficient equipment in terms of tenders, hoses, pumps and whatever else, will the Ministry please tell the citizenry exactly what went wrong last week.
One businessman who lost his building and most of its contents on November 13, was highly critical of the performance of the fire-fighters themselves. Will the Ministry of Home Affairs kindly comment on the matter of manpower, and whether the GFS has both the quantity and the quality necessary in terms of human resources to take on a conflagration in a built-up zone. If the fire service is under-staffed at any level, will the Ministry do us the favour of saying what measures it is taking to address the problem.
Water and electricity, even on the reported admission of the Fire Chief, played their roles in the sequence of events after Royal Castle started to burn. No one in authority has yet seen fit to explain to the public what emergency arrangements are in place in relation to the two utilities in the event of a fire, whether the procedures are adequate, and if they are, whether they were followed on that occasion. If the procedures are adequate, but were not followed, then why not? If they are fundamentally flawed, then what measures are proposed to remedy the situation?
The Fire Chief and the Minister of Home Affairs cannot go on treating Georgetown residents and businessmen with such disrespect. Fire is a matter of immediate public interest, and in a democracy, officials must be prepared to communicate with the electorate, and submit themselves to questions about their handling of any given situation.
It might be observed too, that there are few adult citizens in Georgetown who have not been witness to at least one major blaze during the course of their lives. In fact, older residents may well have seen several of them, and will have watched the performance of the GFS over the decades, and been able to make comparisons. Fires, therefore, are not something about which the capital's inhabitants have no first-hand knowledge. The authorities should in the first instance stop pretending that citizens are ignorant, and in the second, start behaving in an accountable fashion.
We wait to hear from the Ministry of Home Affairs or the fire service about the date of a press conference.