Commissioner of the Jamaica Fire Brigade (JFB), Stewart Beckford, is

imploring members of the public to desist from making false fire calls.

He said that these calls put an unnecessary strain on resources, noting

that vehicles have been damaged as firefighters rush to respond to what they

believed to be genuine alarms.

The Fire Commissioner said that over the period 2014 to 2018 the fire

brigade responded to more than 6,000 false alarms.

“We can’t sit at our stations when we get a call. We have to respond once

we receive a call,” he noted.

He was speaking at the launch of Fire and Life Safety Awareness Week 2019

on Friday, October 25, at the Police Officers’ Club in St Andrew.

Meanwhile, the Fire Commissioner is appealing for persons to be more

vigilant in preventing fires in the home.

“Simple safety measures could have prevented, if not all, most of these

fires,” he said.

He noted that many fires result from children playing with flammable

items, and so urged parents and guardians to ensure that children are properly

supervised and are not left at home by themselves.