Barnwell residents renew calls for better roads following deadly fire

After the deadly fire at Barnwell North, Mocha Arcadia, East Bank Demerara (EBD), which claimed the lives of three children on Thursday, members of the community are of the belief that the present condition of the road hindered the rescue attempt by members of the Guyana Fire Service.

Eight-year-old Timothy and six-year-old Trayshon Kippins and one-year-old Zhlia Flue perished in an early morning fire that erupted at their home while their mother was at work.
Reports are that the Guyana Fire Service (GFS) was alerted to the fire immediately after it started, and fire tenders from the Diamond and West Ruimveldt Stations were dispatched to the scene, but took some time to arrive there as a result of the deteriorating road.
A resident, Rozanne Allen, stated that it took the firefighters approximately 45 minutes to arrive on the scene, only to find the charred remains of three young children. It is her belief that if the road that led deeper into the community was accessible to the firefighters, the children might have still been alive.
“The Fire reel come and stop up to a point, where they couldn’t come in fuh save these children. Over twenty-five years we asking for this road fuh do. They [the Government] say in here is farmlands, so Government don’t do farmland roads. If they [the Government] do that main road, them children wouldn’t have dead. I was here,” she added.
The road that leads to the backlands in the village is described by the villagers as a “back dam” trackway, because of all the mud. The residents of the community complained that they have children who go to school and they have to endure the struggle on a daily basis. On rainy days, it is even worse, some villagers related.
One resident told  Guyana Times that she has made several attempts to get the subject Minister from both the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance for Change (APNU/AFC) and the present Government to look into their plight but was unsuccessful.
The woman, who asked to remain anonymous, explained that she experienced a wave of deja vu since her house went up in flames a few years ago and again, at that time, the firefighters were unable to provide assistance. She had to watch her house burn to the ground.
She, like many other residents, believe that the “back dam” road seems to be the cause and will continue to be the cause that affects firefighters from doing their jobs in the event of a fire.
Community leader Brittany Henry voiced that she had to sell her minibus due to the condition of the road.
“I have two vehicles. I had a bus, I had to sell it out because there is no way, when rain fall that I got to bring home my vehicles to my yard. For weeks I in drive. My cars in my yard, parked, because of the road,” she said.
“I born and grow in this area. It’s twenty-something years and it’s in this deplorable state at rainfall. And it seems to get from bad to worse as time goes by,” Henry expressed. Henry explained that she has to hoist her daughter up when she’s leaving her home for school and back.