No fatal fires involving children for past five years, says St Kitts-Nevis fore chief

Everette O'Garro, Chief Fire Officer of the St. Kitts and Nevis Fire and Rescue Services Department, says that there have been no fatal fires involving children for the past five years.

“We are attributing this to our Annual Summer Safety Programme that we have with kids,” Mr. O’Garro said in an interview following a meeting held at the Basseterre Fire Station between national security officials and officers of the St. Kitts and Nevis Fire and Rescue Services on Tuesday, June 04, 2019.

Mr. O'Garro also went on to express his confidence in the programme saying that, "We feel that the information that we have spread, that we have imparted to the kids, has really bared fruit, and has helped to make St. Kitts and Nevis a much safer place to be with regards to our kids moving forward."

The 2019 Annual Summer Safety Programme is scheduled for July 15 to 19. It will be held at the Basseterre, Tabernacle and Sandy Point Fire Stations simultaneously.

Mr. O'Garro indicated that there are normally around four hundred children attending the annual programme at the same time.

In speaking about some of the lessons being imparted, the Fire Chief stated that, "The major part of the programme involves teaching the kids fire safety tips, teaching them what to do in the event of a fire and some of the things of what not to do that [may] cause a fire in their homes."

Mr. O'Garro says he believes that the children are putting these safety tips into practice by observing and learning from the Annual Summer Safety Programme and that this would have helped with the prevention of a number of fires involving children.