Almost two months later fire report still to be completed

Nov 02, 2009 News

It is now 52 days since the fire on the West Bank of Demerara that destroyed a three storey building belonging to the Ministry of Education and the Ministry is yet to receive the official report from the Guyana Fire Service.
This is according to Minister within the Ministry of Education, Desrey Fox, who said that on many occasions since the fire, herself as well as the Regional Chairman with responsibility for that constituency, have been trying to obtain a copy of the report to no avail.
The Minister had recently told this newspaper that she has no idea when the report would be handed over to the Ministry.
However, despite this, Dr. Fox noted that the Education Ministry has no intension of conducting its own investigations in order to determine the actual cause of the fire.
Recently, the CEO of the Guyana Power and Light Incorporated, Bharrat Dindyal, had said that the fire might have started from an internal problem in the building. However, Minister Fox refused to comment on this aspect of the fire, as she noted that the Ministry prefers to wait on the report from the Fire Service.
In this context, she explained that the Education Ministry will implement a number of precautionary measures in the building when it is rebuilt. Some of these measures she said would include, smoke alarms and fire extinguishers among others.
“You know we are living in a technological age and some precautionary measures will need to be implemented, because though we are spending so much money on security guards, we also need to spend money on technology in these wooden buildings,” Dr. Fox said.
She also noted that a process will have to be developed where electrical wirings are examined by the experts in order to ensure that they are in proper working condition. Fox had argued for government buildings to be properly secured and for personnel to be adequately trained in order to deal with an emergency, while she also called for medical kits to be made available and for staff to be trained in performing first aid.
Kaieteur News was told that the fire was believed to have been electrical in nature, as there was reportedly an unstable supply of power in the area at the time.
The security guard on duty at the time had told the media that he heard an explosion in the building before it went up in flames.

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Almost two months later fire report still to be completed

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