Fire Chief Elvis Weaver says his department remains unsure about the cause of recent bush fires.
Following a fire in Tyrells yesterday he said “we are not really sure ourselves, what we have observed is that there is a lot of bush fires around and we don’t know how they are being started.”
He added “some of them have been started by people and get out of control but most of them we have no idea how is it they started.”
Weaver said it is his personal view that “they are deliberately set because when the weather is dry people like to get rid of all the dry vegetation.”
He said some bush fires are hard to reach and firefighters must become creative.
“Most of the times the fire truck cannot get to these fires because of terrain so what firefighters do is park the trucks in a safe distance. We will walk if it is threatening a home or a plantation and we will try and beat it out. We have what you call beaters and we beat out the fire then we just try to protect any houses that may be close,” he said.
The Fire Chief said there has been an increase in fires for the year. During the first 5 months of 2019 firemen responded to 182 calls as compared to 244 fire calls so far in 2020.
To date, the All Saints Fire Station has responded to 53 brush (bush and grass) and 12 garbage-related fires for the year.
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As a former resident of Tyrells for many years, I know these fires are very common in the hills. Actually everywhere Fever-grass grows. I was recently in Dominica (last year) and noticed they had the same problem. One proposal I think will help to contain the spread of these fires is to create and maintain fire trenches in the vulnerable areas. This will stop the fire from burning out of control for acres and acres.
Yes I agree, I have seen that happened in Barbados where I have lived for many years.
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