Seven persons were killed by fires in Berbice in 2019, which is two more than in 2018. Divisional Commander Dwayne Scotland has issued an appeal for persons to be more careful in their activities as the fire service in Berbice was called out to 2479 fires last year compared with 1776 the previous year.
Divisional Fire Commander Dwayne Scotland
Due to the fires, both private buildings and businesses were destroyed.
Some 125 private buildings were completely destroyed by fires last year as against 113 the previous year while 18 businesses were completely destroyed as compared to 30 the previous year, showing a 40 per cent reduction.
Nineteen private buildings were damaged when compared to 12 in 2019 and 30 businesses, compared with 9 in 2018, showing a 67 per cent increase.
Buildings that were slightly damaged amounted to 124 private properties and 21 businesses for last year.
The fire service was called out to 1595 vegetation fires as against 913 in 2018, showing a 74.4 per cent increase.
“Carelessness” was the main cause of most of the fires, the Commander said.
Those caused by external electrical faults were 276 as against 319 the previous year and those caused by internal electrical faults amounted to 61 compared with 49 in 2018
Carelessness accounted for 73 fires last year compared to 47 the previous year, giving a 53 per cent increase.
According to Scotland, that is unacceptable.
“People need to be more cognisant of their environment and the way they operate. We have children playing with matches also at an increase; parents leaving their children unattended and going and do what they want to do and the child has free time and finds some ways of making use of their time and most of the time they like playing with matches or experimenting with fire,” Scotland added.
Meanwhile, fires caused as a result of children playing with matches increased by 53 per cent, moving from 16 in 2018 to 22 last year.
Fires of unknown origin were four compared with 14 the previous year. 109 were maliciously started in both years and 1597 were started deliberately last year compared with 913 the previous year, giving a 75 per cent increase. Fires that were accidentally started were 16 last year compared with 11 the previous year.
There was a total of 222 malicious false alarm calls made last year and 25 false alarm calls made with good intent.
