The Guyana Fire Service (GFS) has embarked on an unprecedented expansion of its operations, growing from just five stations nationwide in earlier years to 22 fully operational facilities today, with six more currently under construction, Chief Fire Officer Gregory Wickham has revealed. He made this revelation during a recent televised “Safeguarding the Nation” programme.
Chief Fire Officer Gregory Wickham during the “Safeguarding Our Nation” programme
“In years gone by, there were just about five fire stations in the country. To date, the Guyana Fire Service is operating operationally out of 22 fire stations,” Wickham said during a recent programme appearance, adding that the expansion has been designed to ensure faster response times and wider coverage in all regions of the country. The construction drive has already delivered completed fire stations at Charity and Diamond, with ongoing works at Onderneeming on the Essequibo Coast, on the East bank of Demerara (EBD) and at Mahaicony on the east coast of the Demerara.
“This generally is meant for us to reach in a timely manner to those persons who may be in distress,” he explained.
Wickham said the transformation is backed by significant Government investment aimed at modernising infrastructure, improving equipment and upgrading the living and working conditions of firefighters. “The Government of Guyana over the years would have expended lots of monies and recently to the tune of $9 billion to equip the Guyana Fire Service with fire tenders, firefighting equipment and even infrastructurally to ensure that we have environment where firefighters would live, stay and work out of that is more accommodative for them to work,” the Chief Fire Officer stated. One of the key components of this upgrade has been strengthening rural emergency coverage. Wickham said 40 pickup-type fire tenders have been deployed to serve communities outside of urban centres, particularly in areas where access by large trucks is challenging. “We would have invested in those areas, rural areas, 40 pickup types, fire tenders to lend support to those persons who may be in distress. That there would ensure that we render the assistance needed to the members of our country when and if the need arises,” he noted.
According to Wickham, these smaller tenders give the Fire Service greater flexibility to reach emergencies in hinterland, riverine, and agricultural districts where poor road conditions, narrow streets, or long travel distances can delay traditional fire trucks. Beyond infrastructure and vehicles, Wickham said the service has been placing greater emphasis on prevention, public awareness and training, pointing to lessons learned from tragedies such as the Mahdia and Christchurch fires.
“We would have, from that exercise there and that trauma, put in place a whole set of structures to ensure that we do not have those kinds of reoccurrences,” he said. Those structures include increased inspections of schools and dormitories, the training of dorm leaders in fire safety management, regular evacuation drills and community outreach programmes in marketplaces, shopping malls, hospitals, and schools. “We have also been engaging members in our communities… so that we can prevent reoccurrences of such types. Guyana cannot afford to have the same level of trauma or suffering of our citizens like we have had in Madia,” Wickham stressed. He also urged the public to play its part in ensuring that firefighters can carry out their duties effectively. Among the challenges he highlighted were motorists failing to yield to sirens, construction materials obstructing roads, homes with heavy grills that delay entry, and incidents of damaged firefighting equipment.
“The first thing that members of the public contribute to making our jobs harder is by not adhering to the fire service’s siren… It is important for persons to adhere to the siren, go to the off side of the road in order to allow us to have access to those persons who might be in distress,” Wickham appealed.
He also warned against prank calls, which he said have been increasing and waste valuable resources. “Consider the waste of resources that it takes to go to a call when there is eventually no need for that appliance or those appliances to be there,” he said, adding that such diversions could prevent the Fire Service from reaching genuine emergencies in time.
450 gallons of water
Meanwhile, Wickham clarified that fire tenders are always fully equipped with water when responding to emergencies. He stated that each fire tender carries approximately 450 gallons of water. With proper management during active firefighting, this supply typically lasts only about two to three minutes.
Because of this limited onboard capacity, firefighters rely heavily on external water sources such as hydrants, canals, or nearby bodies of water to sustain operations during larger or prolonged fires. Two years ago, Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces President Irfaan Ali had asserted that the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) play a role in the development of emergency mapping services.
President Ali had contended that, “in every region, I am tired with the fire tender turn up and they don’t know where the drain is, they don’t know where the trenches are… Is there a cluster map? How do we develop a cluster map for every region, and then a cluster map for different communities?”
“For example, Grove-Diamond is a massive urban settlement, where is the cluster map that points out exactly where a trench is, where a drain is, where water source is? And then where is there a water source that we can keep all the time, that we can just go to and use and we mark it off?”
“We have to develop what we call emergency mapping services for our country…
The President has said the GDF can work along with other agencies, such as the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA), or even the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), “to have a full understanding of what they’re doing, and develop strategy maps”.
“The Guyana Defence Force must know where assets are; where the national assets are…and not, in a case of emergency, we’re looking to see who has a ladder and who has a hammer…”
