KINGSTON, Jamaica — Jamaicans For Justice (JFJ) is calling for an official report on the tragic fire that claimed the lives of two wards of the state and displaced 34 others on January 15 at the Walker’s Place of Safety.

The JFJ in a release this afternoon said that the incident is the fifth such occurrence at a child care institution in recent memory and comes on the heels of a fire that gutted the Clifton Boys’ Home one year ago, disrupting the lives of 30 boys housed at the facility.

The organisation said it is heartened that the authorities were able to locate accommodations for the displaced children and mobilise an effective rapid-response team, however it said notwithstanding that, the country deserves a full report on what occurred and the measures to be implemented to prevent recurrence.

“It has been two weeks since the incident and to this date a report has not been publicly issued that establishes the cause of the fire, the specific circumstances under which the two children died, and whether the facility had fully complied with all safety measures,” the JFJ contended. Given what it said are Jamaica’s longstanding issues regarding fire safety at and monitoring of residential institutions housing children, the JFJ called for the official, independent account to be publicly provided in the interests of transparency and public accountability.

It further added that the families of those affected by the fire, national stakeholders in the child protection sector, and the public deserve a fulsome explanation.

Meanwhile, the organisation appealed to authorities to strength and monitor safety standards for residential childcare facilities, adding that beyond this incident, the overall monitoring of residential childcare facilities island-wide and the adequacy of safety standards for facilities remains an outstanding issue in need of serious attention.

The JFJ also welcomed Prime Minister Andrew Holness’ announcement of a comprehensive review of the management procedures at residential childcare facilities and urges the government to not only conduct a review but meaningfully implement the findings.

“If Jamaicans are to believe, as the prime minister said in the aftermath of the fire, that “the government takes seriously its duty to all children, especially those in the care of the state,” and if we are to prevent a 6th fire at a childcare facility in a decade, then there must be corresponding human and financial resources allocated to the welfare of these children that matches their needs,” it said.

The organisation ended its statement lamenting that the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (formerly the Child Development Agency) remains chronically under-funded and under-staffed adding that: “Any serious strategy to improve ward safety must consider the practical capacity of the CPFSA to discharge its monitoring and oversight duties effectively.”