AN exposition to be held at the Hi-Lo supermarket car park and community walk-throughs are to form part of this year’s activities by the Jamaica Fire Brigade in St Mary to observe Fire Safety Awareness Week, which began yesterday and will end on Friday.

“Fire safety awareness week is an annual event for the Jamaica Fire Brigade. Every parish is tasked with carrying out a week of activities. For St Mary, we are following through with such task. The theme is ‘Don’t burn carelessly — uncontrolled burning brings death and destruction’. So, we want to sell the information to the public as much as possible,” district officer in charge of fire prevention for St Mary, Collin Bryan told the Jamaica Observer North East last week.

The aims, Bryan said, are to broaden the parish’s fire safety awareness; reduce the number of fires; reduce the instances of death or injuries caused by fires; engage the public in active fire protection efforts; continue developing a sustained, public fire safety education programme; and inform the public of the brigade’s role, function and career opportunities.

“The aim is obviously to reduce fires and what we are doing is to target fires that affect St Mary. So, we’ve called out agencies such as JPS (Jamaica Public Service), because we have had a few fires that started from electrical short circuit. We’ve also had a number of bush fires even though we’ve seen a reduction this year, so we have also invited RADA (Rural Agricultural Development Agency),” he added.

Bryan noted that since its inception some 10 years ago, there has been a steady decrease in the occurrences of fires, not only in the parish but nationwide.

This year’s targeted communities include: Broadgate, Stewart Town, Islington, Highgate, Castleton, Gayle, Richmond, Boscobel, and Carron Hall.

Today will feature an exposition simulation with fire warden participants, an exhibition on the skill set of firefighters, and an award ceremony. Tuesday will feature walk-throughs of communities and fire station tours; Wednesday will feature community workshops and a jingle competition; Thursday will feature fire safety presentations and drills; while Friday will feature a closing ceremony in neighbouring parish, Portland.