Bajan Fire Fighters Blog

Chief Fire Officer Wilfred Marshall has expressed concern about the high number of structural fires taking place in Barbados, in particular private dwelling houses and commercial building fires. Marshall has noted that while some fires are due to carelessness on the part of homeowners and others have been deemed as “suspicious”, a number of these fires have been classified as “undetermined”. Homeowners and people in general still have a role to play in fire prevention, he has noted. Speaking to the Barbados Advocate yesterday at Barbados Fire Service Headquarters located at Probyn Street Bridgetown, the Chief Fire Officer lamented about the number of fires of which the origin has not been determined. “I am always concerned that we have a high percentage of undetermined fires. We work closely with the police in terms of determining the cause of fires and so it is not only the Fire Service that is involved in determining the cause of a fire. We work closely with them as they bring a fore...

The Barbados Fire Service in no way condones indiscriminate burning, also known as open burning in communities across Barbados. In fact, Chief Fire Officer Wilfred Marshall believes that this is a cultural practice which should be stamped out. Marshall shared his views with the Barbados Advocate on this matter this week. He noted that the Fire Service is presently working with a committee set up by Government, to explore whether legislation is needed to tackle the issue of indiscriminate burning in Barbados, as has been proposed to deal with smoking in public places. The smoking ban is set to come into effect this Friday, October 1st. “Our responsibility is to make sure that if people do burn, that they burn in a safe environment. But we have a national responsibility to join with other civic organisations and right now, there is a committee set up under the auspices of the Ministry of Health, which is looking at legislation to deal with the burning of refuse. They are still in discuss...

Source: news.barbadostoday.bb

Chief fire officer, Wilfred Marshall says the fire service in Barbados has been fully stretched this year. According to Mr. Marshall there's been an increase in the number of blazes across the country. Fires in all categories are up this year over the numbers recorded last year. Chief Fire Officer, Wilfred Marshall gave the statistics during a church service at the Collymore Rock Nazarene Church to mark fire service week. Mr. Marshall said there were 1990 fires in 2009, and to date 2284 this year, broken down like this. 19 commercial fires in 2009, and 20 up to September this year, 86 house fires in 2009, but 108 so far this year. The Fire Chief says the service's Prevention and Community Relations Department has also been busy, having trained over 24 thousand nursery and primary school students over the last three years, in fire prevention. He says they've also done training and other education drives at commercial and community organisations, recording close to one thousa...

Come next week, this country's Fire Service will celebrate its 55th anniversary. And to mark the occasion, the department will host several activities under the theme "Raising the Bar of Excellence through Service". The week will begin with divine worship on Sunday, September 26, at the Church of the Nazarene, Collymore Rock, St. Michael, starting at 8:00 a.m. There will also be a series of open days from Monday, September 27 to Friday, October 1, at all Fire Stations. These will commence at 10:00 a.m. and the public will have the opportunity to visit and tour the facilities. Also on Monday, September 27, there will be a health & safety extravaganza at the headquarters, of the Barbados Fire Service Probyn Street, Bridgetown. Visitors can get their cholesterol and blood pressure checked as well as know their HIV/AIDS status. Massages and pedicures will also be available, and tips on fire safety will be exhibited. The following day, Tuesday, September 28, there will be...

Firefighters did all that was humanly possible to save the lives of the six young women who perished in the Campus Trendz fire in Tudor Street, The City earlier this month. Reeling under widespread public condemnation over the handling of the September 3 tragedy, Chief Fire Officer Wilfred Marshall said the attacks had damaged the morale of the Fire Department. “There were fire officers who actually cried because they were on the scene working and they gave of their best. They felt very hurt when all these negative comments were coming at them as if no effort was made to reach the victims in the fire,” he told the WEEKEND NATION in an exclusive interview yesterday. Marshall said some of his firefighters placed their own lives on the line, reaching as much as 25 feet to 30 feet within the raging inferno. “The impression coming from members of the public that the firefighters didn’t make any effort to save [the victims] was far from the truth.” Describing the blaze as one of the toughest...

Some members of the public have been threatening fire officers to the point where they fear for their own safety at some fire scenes. In a telephone interview yesterday, acting Chief Fire Officer Wilfred Marshall said there had been at least two reports of verbal abuse at fire scenes recently, adding that his officers needed to focus on the job at hand and not be distracted. “Ever since [the fatal September 3 Tudor Street fire] there have been negative comments about us on call-in programmes. on at least two occasions, in St Michael and Christ Church, we have had some hostile remarks made to officers as they responded to fires and some officers have been scared by some of those remarks. “We understand the situation; we are trying to be professional and we are asking people to also be understanding to the circumstances we operate in. When we are called to a fire, we cannot be distracted and looking over our shoulder at people making threats. Let us focus on the mission, which is fightin...

President of the Caribbean Association of Firefighters Charles Ramsaroop says the association would be approaching heads of departments regionally for firefighters to access advance training. In an interview yesterday, Ramsaroop, who is also president of the local Fire Service Association said: “There was a strategic plan for a memorandum of understanding where we can access training from other islands and from the T&T Fire Service. Some islands do not have that level of training and expertise.” The executive body of the association met last weekend at Cascadia Hotel and Conference Centre. Representatives from Guyana, Dominica, Barbados, St Lucia, Martinique and Trinidad and Tobago attended. Ramsaroop said: “We want all the members to be able to access training techniques in fire-fighting, We will be approaching representatives in Martinique who has training facilities. We will be writing to the Barbados Fire Service to access two areas of training.” The association is expected to ...

Police and fire personnel now have a stronger foundation in their examination of fire and arson cases. This comes as 21 participants from local and regional emergency agencies took part in a fire and arson investigations course last week at the Regional Police Training Centre at Paragon. “From a local perspective, we within the Royal Barbados Police Force have not been very successful in our investigation of fires,” said Assistant Commissioner of Police Oral Williams, adding that this stemmed from a lack of skills and expertise in the investigation of such incidents. “The lack of these skills has serious implications for a community. For one, when persons are able to intentionally set fires and are not identified and are not brought to justice, it engenders a confidence with the perpetrators and can act as a catalyst for repeated acts,” he stated on Friday evening during the closing ceremony. He said fires often resulted in insurance companies having to make great payouts in loss to ot...

Six people perished last night in a blaze that could go down as one of Barbados’ worst human tragedies. A fire believed to have started by two men who robbed the Campus Trendz store in Tudor Street, The City, engulfed the two-storey building along the busy shopping street, trapping the hapless victims within the inferno. Confirmed dead is 18-year-old Shanna Griffith, an employee of the store who reportedly died in an ambulance en route to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Unconfirmed reports also indicated that five other females perished, including a toddler, other staff and customers. A female supervisor also had to be treated on the scene for several cutlass wounds, believed to have been inflicted by one of the robbers. Up to press time, her condition was unknown. According to police, the two robbers, in view of shocked customers, threw an incendiary device into Campus Trendz just before 7 p.m., after taking an undisclosed amount of cash. An eyewitness told the SATURDAY SUN he was stand...

Horror. That was the situation last night in Bridgetown when at approximately 7:05 pm the first emergency respondents attended to a fire at Campus Trendz Boutique, Tudor Street, the scene of an unsuccessful robbery attempt. Hundreds of curious onlookers gathered behind several barricades erected by officials on both ends of the street to witness the horrifying events which unfolded before their eyes. As it became apparent that persons had been trapped inside the building and were injured, perhaps fatally, the mood turned sombre as grieving family members turned to emergency personnel for solace. Up to press time, Inspector David Welch, Public Relations Officer for the Royal Barbados Police Force, confirmed that one injured female was taken away by ambulance and an additional five female bodies were confirmed to be inside of the building which had been consumed by thick, acrid smoke. Welch indicated that all efforts were being made to search the remaining areas within the two-storey bui...

Investigations are continuing into a fire yesterday at a St Lawrence hotel complex still under construction. Fire officials responded to around 8:30 a.m. to a call at the hotel, owned by Ocean Two Ltd. A fire officer told the media there was damage to a stove, windows and some boxes but the fire was contained within ten minutes, causing only moderate damage. One worker said he was in one of the rooms when he saw people running and shouting: “Bring a bucket,” but had no idea what was going on. Eight fire officers, under the command of Station Officer Ormond Fenty, responded to the fire, utilising a fire tender from Worthing and another tender as well as an aerial appliance from Probyn Street Headquarters. Site foreman with contractors Shelby Construction, Trevor Lucas, said construction on the hotel began in February 2008. It employs more than 100 workers. (CA) Source: www.nationnews.com