The Guyana Fire Service (GFS) has launched an investigation into the cause of the fire which erupted at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Headquarters on Monday morning.
At around 10:00h, smoke was seen emanating from the ceiling of the crime laboratory department attached to the CID.
What could have been a major disaster was averted due to quick response by police officers as well as firefighters.
Fire Chief (acting) Gregory Wickham says the police’s training in basic firefighting helped in putting out the blaze.
“I want to give shoutout, and thanks and good work to the members of the Police Force who would’ve used their training that they would have received from the Guyana Fire Service in basic firefighting with the use of fire extinguishers until the arrival of the fire service,” he expressed.
Five fire tenders responded to the fire: two from the Central Fire Station, one from Alberttown Fire Station, one from Campbellville Fire Station, and one from West Ruimveldt Fire station.
“On arrival of the first appliance, smoke and fire was seen emanating from a particular room and so the fire service was able to gain entrance into that room find the seat of the fire, put it out.”
Neither Commissioner of Police acting nor Wickham could have pronounced on the damages caused as a result of the minor blaze.
“I’m hoping that at the end of this exercise there would not be much damage that would’ve been done by fire, neither by the water. And, also on the conclusion of this firefighting exercise, our investigators will be going in to do their investigative work and I’m certain they’ll be able to come up with the cause of this fire,” Wickham said.
This fire comes on the heels of the blaze that destroyed the Force’s Office of Professional Responsibility building in November 2021 and the fire which destroyed the Brickdam Police Station in October of that year.
