Fires: a sign of so much beneath the surface

Jul 21, 2023 Editorial

Kaieteur News – Like water and flooding, fires and dying have been a consistent presence in the lives of Guyanese. The toll is grim: 23 children and 7 adults gone up in flames, their flesh incinerated, and all these victims in the first 6 months of this year. The grim reaper has had a frightening harvest of our young before the prime of their lives, our more mature adults registering a toehold in this life, and even our elderly passing their last days. Though 20 of the 23 children were killed by fire in one harrowing moment, it was still a worrying series of fire, fires, and more fires.

The usual culprits were identified, but that is no solace to survivors and grieving family members and communities trying to cope. It was about young children playing with matches, adults being careless with smoking, and the not-so-infrequent mystery, as reported by the Guyana Fire Service, of fires of electrical origins. In at least one of the fiery, lethal incidents in this year, there was the pointing of fingers to grills. Guyanese should need no reminder, but iron grills and steel padlocks closed out any escape from the inferno of Mahdia, with 20 of our indigenous youth consumed by flames, the work of a child arsonist, as alleged.

Not to minimize the sterling efforts put in by the GFS to trace the sources of deadly fires, plus those that caused serious injuries and/or serious losses of property, there is so much more at work beneath the surface of the fires that rage and rip through wood and concrete and, most of all, our hearts. Fears for our safety from marauding criminals seemingly operating at will have contributed heavily to the armor plating of homes and other places of occupancy, whether such functions as dormitories, or for business objectives. Those who can afford the expense spare none to secure themselves and their families through steel grills wrapped around their windows and doors. More latticework grills usually mean more padlocks, and more padlocks mean that there must be more keys. In a crunch, in the pressure of panic induced by life and death alarms, with fires imprisoning in a fearsome surrounding wall, what came about for the soundest of purposes, personal and familial safety, transforms into deathtraps. The chronic fears of constant crimes have compelled carrying security precautions to the extreme, which means that grills have to be installed. Despite reassurances from officials about dismantling crime, with statistics to match, rare is the Guyanese, if any at all, who makes a move to dismantle his or her protective grillwork. The fiery results are the numbers with which we live, lament.

Children playing with matches can be attributed to more than the negligence of preoccupied parents. The economics of family conditions often necessitate both parents being out of the home for long stretches daily. Young children left alone, or locked up alone, is an invitation to disaster, which has too often been the sad case. Who is left alone, who is in charge of whom, and what measures have been put in place to secure our most precious possessions, are questions answered in heartbreak and tears. The struggle for finances has ironically, sometimes, fueled fires that come from playing or experimenting with matches, with lives lost, and irreparable damage done.

Though considerably less in frequency than before, one fire of electrical origins is still one too many. Surges from the national energy grid, or poor wiring, or lack of breakers, or illegal connections, could be the problem. If it is not surges, then the last three again point right back to the economics of fires, and how much our older homes, our poorer citizens, lag behind. We have heard about modern codes and fire extinguishers, all helpful presences, but the hand of demand, once again, reaches for funds that most likely are not there. In a society where enough struggle to survive, electrical protections are a nice to have, but a luxury that is mostly out of reach.

We still have smokers, and we will always have children around. Similarly, crime and grills are not going away, nor the money coming up to make life safer from fires.

Discover more from Kaieteur News

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Editorial, fires, flooding, Guyanese, surface

Latest News