…Firefighters praised for containing, controlling blaze
Five persons are now homeless after a fire at Mount Sinai, New Amsterdam (NA), Berbice, on Thursday morning.
The fire at Lot 4, Mount Sinai, has left a couple and their three adult children homeless.
At the time of the blaze, no one was at home. However, one of the children arrived home shortly after the fire started and an alarm was raised.
With assistance from neighbours, everyone started helping to move valuables.
Eyewitnesses say firefighters broke into the building, taking a hose with them, and seconds later began dousing the fire.
The two storey, four bedroom, concrete building was partially damaged, with extensive damage to the upper flat where the fire is believed to have originated.
Initial investigations suggest that the fire was caused by an electrical device being left on in one of the bedrooms.
Divisional Fire Officer, Clive McDonald, said it took the firefighters about four minutes from the time they received the call, to arrive on the scene with two fire tenders: one going to the front of the building and the other going to the back street.
McDonald said the firefighters were able to extinguish the blaze, which had already made its way through the roof of the building, with the water in the two tanks. According to him, they immediately went into action to stop and suppress the spread of fire.
“We received a call at 8.50. The first tender arrived at 8.54h, within about two to three minutes on average. I was standing in the compound of the New Amsterdam Fire Station, and we observed the smoke. When the crew arrived and the smoke that I personally looked at, I recognised that the fire was under control. Because of the fire dynamics, based on the smoke that I saw from a distance, I was aware and acknowledged that this fire was under control,” he explained.
Several persons were high in their praise for the efforts of the fire department in not only containing the fire to the one building but also bringing it under control quickly.
Commenting on the fact that on many occasions, persons at a fire scene claim that when the firefighters would have arrived, they did not have water, McDonald said, “We came with two tenders, approximately 500 gallons of water. We were able to contain and control this fire with the water that was in those two tenders. One tender is almost empty. After we got it under control, the other tender used three-quarters of the tank supplies and returned to the station, ready to respond just in case of an emergency. We would hear these calls that the fire tender came with no water, based on what people would see. You arrive on the scene with the small tenders, 400 gallons of water, the building is well consumed by fire. There might be a nearby source, there might be a hydrant. Four hundred gallons of water pumping 250 gallons per minute,” the senior fire officer pointed out.
At that rate, it would take just over a minute and a half to empty the fire tender.
McDonald explained that it is because of that, fire fighters would be seen arriving at a fire scene and immediately looking for a water source; be it a hydrant, pound or canal, if in their assessment the water in the tender should be saved for an emergency like a fire threatening to spread to other buildings.
