Up to June 6, there were 58 house fires and 1 296 grass fires in Barbados.
This in comparison to 43 house fires and 934 grass fires over the same period last year.
Overall, there have been 2 121 fires for the period this year.
Chief Fire Officer Chesterfield Mayers expressed his concern over this worrying trend last Saturday during a Press briefing where Co-operators General Insurance donated $4 800 to the service towards their smoke detector programme.
"Some people cannot replace their homes or can scarcely replace their clothing so if we can prevent just one fire, we have achieved something," he said.
The fire chief also urged corporate Barbados and interestred individuals to help them with the smoke detector programme and help reduce structural fires.
Station Officer Wilfred Marshall said the physically challenged and elderly - which the programme is targeting - constituted a high risk group, which were usually challenged to be fire safe due to negligence.
He also asked Barbadians not to burn grass or garbage as grass fires made up 60 per cent of the calls to which they responded. (CA)
Source: The Nation Newspaper - June 11, 2008
0 Comment(s).
Bravenet Blog 
Blog Community
Get a Free Blog
Manage your Blog
bravenet.com