Don't tamper with fire hydrants!

PUBLIC relations officer for the Jamaica Fire Brigade Emeleo Ebanks is urging Jamaicans to refrain from damaging or stuffing hydrants with waste, warning that this could be a matter of life and death in an emergency.

"I want to remind persons that the fire hydrants are for all of us. Persons tend not to realise that the hydrants are there for the purpose of providing water in the event that there is a fire, so as such, I would want to ask persons not to do anything to damage the hydrants. Don't stuff the juice boxes and all the other things they tend to stuff into the pillar of the hydrant because those things will slow us down when we come out there to access the hydrants," Ebanks said on Wednesday.

Further, he said the brigade has repaired an additional 352 hydrants, making it so that over 80 per cent of hydrants are now working. Asked to say how many hydrants are now in the brigade's network, Ebanks said this figure was not available.

"I don't have the figure, that takes a whole lot of adding up because any subdivision that comes or any kind of residential development, we have to go through and check how many we had approved for all the subdivisions across the island and that is not normally done until the end of the year," he said.

He, however, noted that approval has been given for a significant number of hydrants across the island, given the boom in residential construction.

Last year the brigade, in speaking about its drive to repair fire hydrants across the island, said when it began the initiative, just over 30 per cent of the more than 15,000 fire hydrants island wide were working.

Speaking with the Jamaica Observer on Wednesday, Ebanks said in respect of maintenance the entity has serviced 1,054 hydrants.

In the meantime, the PRO issued a word of caution to Jamaicans for the Yuletide season.

"We must be mindful that all of us has citizens have a role to play in ensuring our own safety. I cannot overemphasise the importance of fire safety this time of the year, don't leave cooking unattended, if you are drinking, don't go cooking or baking, it's just a no, no," Ebanks said.

Turning to the death of a firefighter who last week perished in a motor vehicle crash, Ebanks also sounded a word of warning to motorists, "the fire brigade responds to all kinds of emergencies, accidents on our roads, so slow down".

Local Government Minister Desmond McKenzie earlier this month said 19 individuals have died and 45 injured in fires since the start of the year. He also said 1,468 people were left homeless between January and October. Over those 10 months the brigade received over 15,000 emergency calls he said.

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