Kingston Mayor Desmond McKenzie (centre) is assisted with trying on a neck brace by (from left) Linsted Fire Station officer David Hamilton, State Minister in Office of the Prime Minister Robert Montague, and Karen Hilliard, mission director of the United States Agency for International Development. Looking on at right is Rhys Campbell, corporate and regulatory affairs manager at Carreras Limited. (Photo: Karl McLarty)

THE Jamaica Fire Brigade (JFB) yesterday launched its Community Fire Safety Programme which is aimed at building awareness on fire prevention among Jamaicans.

Under the theme 'Awareness: The Key to a Fire Safe Community', the programme is expected to run for three years with several objectives, including that of reducing the instance of death and injuries caused by fires and to broaden communities' fire safety awareness.

The other objectives are to:

. Increase the number of smoke detectors installed in households islandwide;

. Develop a sustained public Fire Safety Education programme;

. Get communities actively involved in fire protection efforts;

. Reduce the incidences of fires in our protected wildlife and wetlands areas; and

. Reduce the number of bush and farmland fires.
Chief Fire Prevention Officer Samuel McIntosh told the Observer that it was the first time that such a programme was being launched.

"The JFB, through this programme, intends to place greater emphasis on prevention rather than intervention for all fires and other emergencies, and we are confident that we will be able to achieve what we have set out to do with the support of corporate Jamaica," McIntosh said, at yesterday's launch at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in Kingston.

Among the major organisations supporting the initiative are the United States Agency for International Development, the Forestry Department, The National Environment and Planning Agency, the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management, and the Ministry of Education. Carreras Limited is sponsoring the programme.

According to the JFB, fire has claimed the lives of approximately 200 persons and caused billions of dollars in property damage over the last five years.

Yesterday, state minister in the Office of the Prime Minister with responsibility for local government, Robert Montague, urged corporate Jamaica to support the programme "in a very serious way as the problem concerning the spread of fire was and continues to be a major problem in Jamaica".

Trousers in Denim

Cream of the 'Crop'

Cheeky's World