Fire Service Frowns On Open Burning

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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 discussions as to how far they are going to go on it, but the Fire Service is represented on that committee and we will play our part,” Marshall assured.

The Chief Fire Officer noted that while the ideal would be to have persons refrain from lighting up in the open in communities, some recommendations should be made in the absence of legislation. “Until we can get persons to stop burning refuse, we as a Fire Safety organisation would say, if you are going to burn, burn in small heaps that you can control,” Marshall advised.

“We do not encourage you to burn. In fact, in recent times, we have had persons calling trying to get rid of rubbish and so on and we tell them find other ways to get rid of it, because the Ministry of Health and the environmentalist are coming down on this particular issue and we have a civic responsibility to join them. But if people still feel that they have to burn in the absence of legislation, they should do it in a way that they do not hurt themselves or other people’s properties,” Marshall said.

Source: www.barbadosadvocate.com

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