JFB Stages Fire Safety Expo at Mandela Park
By: October 28, 2016 ,The Key Point:
The Facts
- Emergency medical technicians were on hand to offer blood pressure and other health checks to expo attendees.
- Members of the public are invited to attend the open house events being held at fire stations across the island to view the tools and equipment used by firefighters. Safety talks will also be part of these events.
The Full Story
The Jamaica Fire Brigade (JFB) continued its observance of Fire Safety Awareness Week with an exposition on Wednesday (October 26) at Mandela Park, St. Andrew.
The event, hosted by the Kingston and St. Andrew (KSA) Fire Brigade, featured a display of fire-fighting equipment such as extinguishers and forcible entry tools, while there were posters providing fire-safety tips.
Emergency medical technicians were on hand to offer blood pressure and other health checks to expo attendees.
The day also included the award of prizes to top-performing primary- and high-school students in the JFB’s Fire Safety Awareness Week poster and essay competitions, and other fun activities to engage the public.
Sergeant Kwesi Osborne of the KSA Fire Brigade told JIS NEWS that the expo was one of several activities staged across the island to raise public awareness about basic fire-safety practices.
“Our theme for this year is ‘Don’t burn carelessly; uncontrolled burning brings death and destruction’. We are going all out this year to get persons to understand that burning carelessly can cause death and destruction,” he said.
Members of the public are invited to attend the open house events being held at fire stations across the island to view the tools and equipment used by firefighters. Safety talks will also be part of these events.
Meanwhile, Sergeant Osborne is advising householders to install smoke detectors. “Everyone should have a smoke detector in their sleeping areas. It can save your life and your family’s lives,” he said.
Offering other fire-safety tips, he said that cooking should not be left unattended; keys to the home/office should be kept in an easy-to-reach location to enable quick exit in case of an emergency; and only certified electricians should be engaged to handle electricity connections.
In the event that persons are lighting fires outdoors, Sergeant Osborne said this should be done in a punctured, enclosed container to allow smoke to escape while preventing the fire from spreading.
“If you have to burn, do so in a controlled environment. Don’t burn carelessly,” he said.
Among the exhibitors were Safety and Fire Systems Limited, AcVARK Fire and Safety Equipment Company, National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA), National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA), Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM), and Petrojam.