The fire question

THE EDITOR, Sir:

There is a saying that always leaves me uncomfortable whenever I hear it. It goes something like this: "If you want to hide something from a Jamaican, put it in a book".

On reflection, however, one does get the impression that many of us are averse to reading.

So we take medication without knowing what we are taking. Government issues instructions and we claim we weren't 'told' and sometimes face painful consequences.

But I often wonder whether government officers aren't themselves guilty of avoiding the written word. For years, I have been writing about the enormous losses in life and property to fires. I mention the fact that our fire service seems unable to accomplish anything except 'cooling-down operations'. This despite the proximity to the fire station.

I have mentioned that two of our most horrible fire events, the Eventide Fire which claimed 167 senior citizens and the Orange Lane fire, were within spitting distance of the York Park Fire Station the headquarters. Indeed, only a wall separated the fire station and the fire at Orange Lane, which claimed the lives of several children.

I had more to say in the Letter of the Day on June 12, 2015 and April 25, 2018.

Last week, Desmond McKenzie proudly boarded a new fireboat the Government had acquired.

About that time, Dr Keith Amiel mentioned that there should be a system of early community alert so that the fire trucks can arrive earlier. Good idea.

The position I had taken in my articles, however, is that every large fire was, first, a small fire.

Many of the inner-city communities cannot be accessed by these cumbersome fire engines.

We need smaller mobile units in the communities to deal with the small fires - not more of these clumsy fire trucks. This is an excellent example of inappropriate technology.

We are extremely fortunate to have, so far, escaped a large conflagration.

Glenn Tucker