Fire service ill-equipped to tackle major blazes
-former fire chief
By Nigel Williams and Andre Haynes
Stabroek News
December 22, 2003
A former fire chief who observed the Muneshwers inferno on Friday says the service is ill-equipped to tackle major blazes.
Retired Fire Chief Carl Rogers said he observed that at present the fire tenders cannot hold the volume of water needed to tackle serious fires and the Guyana Water Inc cannot be depended upon to provide this either.
He told Stabroek News yesterday that the provision of water to fight fires was not only a responsibility of the water company, but the City Council should be equally involved.
"But with all those clogged drains around we can never expect the City Council to provide water to the fire-fighters", Rogers, with 30 years experience in fighting fires, said.
Commenting on the Water Street fire on Friday, Rogers said what was required to extinguish the fire is what the Guyana Fire Service does not have.
A fire tender outside Muneshwers pumping water from an underground canal yesterday near one of the nearly four hundred malfunctioning fire hydrants. The hydrant is just in front of the utility pole. (Photo by Lawrence Fanfair)
"We need to have a fireboat and a turntable ladder or a hydraulic platform", Rogers, who was advising the fire service at the scene on Friday, said.
He added a fireboat would have been extremely useful last Friday given the close proximity of the fire to the Demerara River.
Rogers said a hydraulic platform would allow the fire-fighters to tackle the blaze from the top.
"They can stand in that hydraulic platform and pour down water into the fire. That is what is needed and it would have been very useful on that building last Friday."
He said both the government and the private sector had to collaborate and assist in empowering the fire service.
"If all the insurance companies and these large businesses come together with the government and purchase some of the much needed equipment for the service some of these large fires would be avoided. Insurance companies would not have that problem of having to respond to claims and businessmen would not suffer billions of dollars in losses."
"They are the ones who would continue to suffer if we do not equip the fire service and now is the time for them to step in and assist the government," Rogers commented.
During a recent hearing of the Disciplined Forces Commission, the current Fire Chief, Carlyle Washington said the fire service was undermanned and under-equipped and this has made the population vulnerable. He added that the service has only about 40-45% of the equipment it needs and fireboats are part of the service's strategic development plan. The Muneshwers fire followed another devastating conflagration in November at Lombard and Hadfield streets which razed three large businesses.
Rogers observed that Friday's inferno was a combination of all three types of fire which he listed as class (A) of paper origin, class B, oil and Class C, electrical. Rogers said all three of the above combustibles were represented in the Muneshwers Ltd bond where the fire started. The bond was packed with paint, putty, and a large number of boxes of PVC pipes.
"Given the nature of that fire it would have been very difficult for the fire-fighters to put it out." According to him by the time the service could respond to the fire it would already have been well alight.
"You have to take into account the congestion around the fire service headquarters with so many vendors and car parks and these days people do not respect the law with respect to the movements of fire tenders."
Rogers observed that on many occasions, despite the sounding of the siren on the fire tender, vehicles would continue to drive in its path.
"It is like if they do not know that once you hear the fire tender siren you should pull aside and allow it to pass, it doesn't happen these days."
Yesterday, a co-owner of Muneshwer, Amarnath Muneshwer reiterated that insurance claims would not cover losses estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars.
"We have insurance but I don't think that we are fully covered," Muneshwer said yesterday, as he surveyed the scorched building, which also housed Subway, the Muneshwers shipping and travel agency and Suriname Airways.
After two days' work, firemen yesterday managed to put out the small fires which were still burning in the building, though the structure is still smouldering from the intense heat.
Armed guards were still however patrolling the environs of the building, to protect it from looting.
On Friday afternoon a fire of unknown origin reportedly started in a bond on the southern side of the building. The highly-flammable materials in the bond are believed to have fuelled the fire which quickly spread across the building.
Claims adjusters from the Guyana and Trinidad Mutual Fire and Life Insurance Company, which holds the policy for the building, are expected to visit the scene today to begin their investigations.
Meanwhile, Muneshwers' shipping manager, Romel Raghuraj, told Stabroek News that although the company is covered by a general insurance policy, it is not liable for the cargo shipments that were destroyed or damaged by the fire. He says this is because the shipments are supposed to be insured by the consignees or importers. The company's policy on this issue is clearly stated in notices which are on display around the wharf, absolving it of responsibility or liability for any loss and damage to property.
"Our policy is... you bring in your cargo and store it at your own risk," he remarked.
Muneshwer told this newspaper that as the company continues to estimate its losses efforts are being made to speed up work on a building he owns a short distance away from the present one at Water and Commerce streets. Muneshwer said the building was being constructed to house a shopping mall but following the fire they would have to adjust plans.
He said all efforts would be made to retain the design of the burnt-out building which still has a solid floor and has a distinctive tower.
"I like this style, especially that tower, everybody recognises the building by looking at that tower."
Apart from the southern section of the building and the bottom floor which had housed the hardware store and the other businesses, the exterior of the other parts of the building is in reasonably good condition.
The building which had been in existence since the 1940's and was formerly called the Sandbach Parker building stretches from the end of Robb Street to the south to Church Street on the north next to National Hardware. There is also an adjoining bond which is 300 metres along from Robb Street to the Demerara River.
Muneshwer told this newspaper that as soon as they got the go-ahead they will commence reconstruction which he estimated would last over a year. He was however adamant that business was his life and as such he would continue in the trend which he said his father started.
In terms of his operations now, Muneshwers said the travel agency had been relocated to Tower Hotel and the New Palm Court on Main Street would house the shipping and hardware sections.
The co-owner also refuted claims in yesterday's Kaieteur News that a security guard of the store was kidnapped the morning before the fire.
"That is a total fabrication we don't know of any such thing," Muneshwer said. He also dismissed claims in the same newspaper that the business's safes were missing following the fire.
"We have all our safes intact, we lost money yes, but nothing too alarming, the safe that was seen in that photograph (in Kaieteur News) was one that was in the travel agency and it was the last one to have been removed."