Assistant commissioner of the Jamaica Fire Brigade (JFB) Area 4, Floyd McLean, says the agency is focused on “fixing mindsets” in order to prevent fires.

This is in keeping with the theme for Fire and Life Safety Awareness Week 2019, which is being observed from October 27 to November 2, under the theme ‘Mek Wi Fix it: Community First.’

The assistant commissioner, who was speaking to JIS News at the JFB’s Awareness and Health Fair in Sam Sharpe Square, Montego Bay, on Tuesday, said the objective is to change behaviours being practised by residents in communities across the island that pose a threat to fire safety.

“We are fixing the mindset of leaving children alone, and that stealing electricity and not wiring houses properly can create problems that we have to respond to. We believe that fixing these things at the community level can bring positive results,” he said.

He noted further that the brigade wants to rid people of the notion that children “as small as 10, nine or eight years old can prepare their own meals and do their own ironing, without supervision”.

For his part, superintendent of the JFB’s St James Division, Dolphin Doeman, told JIS News that a number of communities in the parish will be visited throughout the week.

Today, firefighters will be in Dumfries and will also stage a simulation exercise at the Montego Bay Community College as well as fire drills at businesses located in and around the city to ensure that they are fire safety compliant.

Members of the brigade will attend devotions at schools across the parish today and tomorrow. Among entities participating in the fair were St James Public Health Services, the Jamaica Red Cross and the Blood Bank.