Legislate for the implementation of fire sprinklers

Jul 12, 2017 Letters

Dear Editor,

My condolences to the Guyana Prison Service, and I congratulate the officers on a job well done, in securing the prisoners. In prisons worldwide, when it comes to fire fighting, it is one of the hardest battles because of inmates’ safety and public safety. If the Camp Street prison had fire sprinklers installed there wouldn’t have been a fire. Fire sprinklers would have extinguish any fire that was ignited, Fire sprinklers work automatically, as temperature rises the fire sprinklers would have popped and water would have extinguished the fire without any prison officers having to be in harm’s way.

Fire Sprinklers could have been retrofitted in all the prison buildings. Fire sprinklers could have been installed in the most secured way, and would have been the most effective way of stopping a fire at the beginning, being able to contain the fire. Time and time again the fire service and government would look pass the importance of fire sprinklers. After the fire a year ago, authorities should have looked into better fire safety protection for the Camp Street Prison. If they had, why weren’t fire sprinklers considered?

Let’s say that when the Camp Street Prison was burning that one of the call center which has workers on each floor, and a fire started there, would the fire engines have left the scene at Camp Street Prison to save other lives at the call center? We saw fire tenders coming from all over to assist in extinguishing the fire and were able to contain the fire to that one area, but the fire engines can’t extinguish all fires. Not because we have a Guyana Fire Department we should depend solely on that department. Government and the Fire Department must implement fire sprinklers a requirement in our laws, so that fires can be extinguished and contained before harm can be done to our citizens. Let’s make Guyana safer; let’s see where our mistakes and weakness are and fix them. Make fire sprinklers mandatory and save lives and properties.

Vishul Ishwaridin