Dear Editor,
Again, another key Government building was lost due to fire. The Guyana Prison Service’s living quarters building was gutted by fire on the morning of 2nd February, 2024, leaving 30 Prison officers displaced.
How strange that this disaster struck one day after Fire officials had hosted a fire prevention talk at the building, which was equipped with fire extinguishers.
It is interesting to note that there were 192 fire calls in January 2024, up from 92 in January 2023. Fire calls (some fake) jumped from 1,000 in 2022 to 4,181 in 2023, a walloping 182.5% increase. The Guyana Fire Service responded to 807 grass fires in 2023; there were 952 fires in 2022, and this figure more than doubled to 2701 in 2023. This was announced by Home Affairs Minister Robeson Benn at his year-end conference.
The derivation for many of these fires is deduced (disguised?) as electrical in origin. What’s perplexing is that fires on state facilities are of suspicious origin. Fires that strike some businesses are also of suspicious origin. There are also official pronouncements that some fires on important businesses are the work of arsonists.
Attorney General (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, SC, suspected foul play in the January 2022 fire at the Guyana National Industrial Company Inc. (GNIC) wharf, as one of the storage bonds which held the three $72.2 million motion scales. In 2020, millions of dollars’ worth of vehicles and other imported items were destroyed at the Laparkan and Tropical Shipping bonds. The then Fire Chief, Gregory Wickham, had revealed that the fire was “maliciously set.”
In May 2017, fire fighters were unable to save the Albion Senior Staff Club and Guest House, located in the Albion Estate Compound. An estimate of the loss could not be provided, as all the bar records were destroyed in the fire! A scotch-free escape route for debtors and creditors? Albion Estate was again the victim of a fire on Saturday morning, 3rd February 2024, when the control room suffered major damage to the tune of some $50 million. A deliberate spoke in the wheel of GuySuCo and the Government?
Since the PPP/C returned to office in 2020, the state has suffered tremendous losses due to fires at buildings, including schools, Police stations and markets, among other places. In 2022, an alarming number of 35 Government properties were destroyed by fire, while in 2023, the same fate was suffered by 21.
The frequency of these incidents generates great suspicion, and some are the work of arsonists. Four people were charged for the July 14th, 2020 deliberate and malicious GECOM office fire in Linden. It is believed that some of these fires on state facilities are attempts to destabilise the Government, forge a bad reputation, and hinder progress.
Fires at school “has to tell us something,” Minister Benn had commented. In 2021, Mabaruma Secondary and North Ruimveldt Secondary were destroyed. In 2022, it was St. George’s High School; and twice in January 2023, there was a fire at Christ Church Secondary School. According to Education Minister Priya Manikchand, “When schools burn, children of all colours, of all religions, whose parents vote all over for everybody; male, female, everybody suffers, and so we have to collectively take a stand in this country that we will not let careless speech, we will not let careless persons, interfere with our children’s future.”
Even the security divisions and justice system had fallen prey to this flammable event. The CID Headquarters at Eve Leary in May 2022, Brickdam Police Station in October 2021, and the building housing the Eve Leary Office of Professional Responsibility and Director of Public Prosecutions Chambers was victim of a towering inferno in November 2021, merely weeks apart from each scene.
“There have been several malicious settings of fires…” Minister Benn had surmised to the press at his conference. There was an attempt to burn the AG’s private law office complex in March 2023. Arson was suspected because kerosene was used on the side of the building.
Former senior lecturer at UG, Dr. Tara Singh, commented in NY on the need for the development of a building code, but he also said, “We can have a modern building code, but if some people are bent on creating mayhem, that would not stop them; though it might make it more difficult to perpetrate acts of arson.” He suggested the following measures for consideration:
1: There is a need for a good building code. 2: There is a need to bring in experts to investigate some of these fires. 3: There is a need to set up a joint private security force to provide security for Government facilities. 4: There is a need to set up a task force to oversee the security of Government facilities.
In the quest for clarity and conclusive confirmation, the exigency not to overlook any hidden agenda and the need to satiate forensic analysis, investigators must also look for inside saboteurs. Regarding the Guyana Prison Service residence fire, it was said, “Opposition elements claim that the agents of PPP/C set the structure on fire so that they (PPP/C) can give the contract to one of their friends to build a new facility. This is reversed psychology at its finest!”
Public safety and the need to smother the arson rampage must be elevated as a top priority. Guyana cannot afford another burning flame. The State is already suffering from other flammable sources, including racial innuendos, violent threats, political propaganda, and social manipulations.
Yours respectfully,
Jai Lall
