Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall has called for a drastic improvement in the level of response being provided by the Guyana Fire Service (GFS).
During his programme “Issues in the News” on Tuesday evening, the Attorney General spoke about the massive fire at Bushlot, West Coast Berbice (WCB) that destroyed several businesses, residential dwellings and resulted in the death of one person.
“The response from the Fire Service service leaves a lot to be desired,” he said, noting that “we cannot keep making the same mistakes. Fire engines cannot keep turning up the fires without water. This is unacceptable.”
According to Nandlall, “the response of our Fire Service must be drastically improved. The people of our country deserve better.”
The fire occurred on Monday and resulted in the death of Carl Persaud. The fire started at around 17:45hrs and persisted for several hours.
Response first came from the Onverwagt Fire Station. That team of firefighters was subsequently joined by others from the Mahaica Fire Station, New Amsterdam Fire Station and the Guyana Sugar Corproation (GuySuCo) fire department.
The Fire Service was previously called out for its poor response by President Irfaan Ali – the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces – after it was unable to save the Brickdam Police Station from a fire, even though their headquarters was located a stone’s throw away.
