Deadly Mahdia Fire CoI: Fire inspection report of Mahdia dorm was not addressed immediately – Fmr Redo

Though the former Regional Education Officer (REDO) in Region Eight (Potaro-Siparuni) Annesta Douglas received a Fire Inspection Report of the Mahdia Secondary School dorms in February – months prior to the tragedy, it was not addressed with the urgency it required.
During Thursday’s public hearings conducted by the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the fatal Mahdia dorm fire, Douglas revealed she was preoccupied with other tasks and was not able to give the report immediate attention, despite being urged to do so by its author, Officer-in-Charge at the Mahdia Fire Station, Ryan Scott.
In fact, Thursday’s hearing was the first time she perused the document altogether.
During his testimony last week, Scott had explained that his report detailed a number of deficiencies within the Mahdia facility, including a lack of fire alarms, smoke detectors, and exit signs, and the concerning presence of grills on the windows.
“Mr. Scott delivered this report [among other reports] to me on February 7, 2023. I received them and placed them into my urgent [pile] on my desk. When Mr. Scott brought the report, he said to me, ‘Let’s see what we can do with the recommendations,’” Douglas recalled.
“So, it was there and I continued to work because it’s a lot of work–we’re always understaffed and I continued to work,” Douglas said, who noted that her duties at the time involved managing budgetary allocations, supervising schools and training teachers within the district.
The following day, Douglas was informed of her reassignment to Georgetown, requiring her to hand over her duties to an incoming REDO in a matter of a week.
This was not the first time Douglas was being transferred or reassigned and she stated that it brought her significant mental stress, thereby further preventing her from taking the Fire Inspection Report into account.
“I put [the report on my desk] because I had lots of things I was doing. So, I had it there, hoping to maybe get an opportunity [to address it] but at that time…my focus shifted from the report to handing over the department in one week,” Douglas said.
Douglas further explained that the Regional Executive Officer (REO), Peter Ramotar who she reported to at the time, was out of the region, therefore affecting her ability to pass the report through the required chain of command.
Yet when prompted on her ability to instead deliver the report to the Deputy Regional Executive Officer (DREO), she was unable to recall if he was present at that very time.
However, on Douglas’s final day as REDO in Region Eight, it was DREO Shaun Britton to whom she handed over responsibilities, during which she was able to present a handover statement and the documents she had on hand.
“When I was handing over to Mr. Britton, I went through a number of documents. Some were not listed [in the handover statement] but they were right there. He signed over the office–the keys, the staff, everything and that [Fire Inspection Report] was handed over,” Douglas said.
Douglas, however, did not specifically discuss the report with Britton or highlight its urgency.
When Britton later testified on Thursday, he explained that he was unaware of the Fire Inspection Report until after the tragic May 21 fire occurred.
“This document was not part of the folder, it was not part of the handover, and none of the documents looked like it. The first time I saw this document was the day of the fire. When I received the call inquiring about this document, I started my own probe to find out whether or not a document like this really existed and if it was submitted to the office or not,” Britton said.
Unable to find a copy of the document within the Education Department, Britton had managed to receive it directly from Scott.
If the report had been brought to his attention prior, Britton explained that he would’ve engaged with a regional engineer to conduct a site visit and prepare a bill accordingly, after which he would’ve determined how to accommodate the necessary improvements. (Pooja Rambaran)