GEORGETOWN, GUYANA – When a fire breaks out in Guyana, firefighters almost always arrive with water, about 450 gallons in each tender, but that supply lasts just two to three minutes. After that, they must scramble to find hydrants, canals, or other water sources. In many cases, that scramble has cost precious time, and sometimes entire buildings.
Fire Chief Gregory Wickham addressed the issue this week on the Safeguarding Our Nation programme, stressing that tenders are never dispatched empty. “We always leave fully loaded,” he said, but acknowledged that sustaining operations in larger or prolonged fires depends entirely on nearby water access.
Hydrant coverage across Guyana is inconsistent. In Georgetown, some units are inoperable due to poor maintenance or vandalism. In rural and hinterland areas, hydrants often don’t exist at all, forcing crews to depend on canals, trenches, or rivers — if they can find them quickly.
Public frustration has been growing for years. After high-profile blazes like the 2021 Brickdam Police Station fire, residents complained that crews “came without water” or “took too long to start.” The Fire Service says the reality is more complicated: they have water, but not enough to sustain firefighting without immediate external supply.
Every minute lost in finding water increases the risk of total destruction. In fast-growing settlements like Grove-Diamond, where buildings are clustered and made with mixed materials, fire can spread rapidly before reinforcements arrive. Beyond property loss, there’s the danger to lives — both of residents and of firefighters.
President Dr Irfaan Ali has called for the creation of emergency mapping services — detailed “cluster maps” of every community showing permanent and seasonal water sources. “In every region, I am tired of the fire tender turning up and they don’t know where the drain is, they don’t know where the trenches are,” he said two years ago.
The plan would see the Guyana Defence Force working with the Central Housing and Planning Authority and the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission to develop and maintain these maps. The goal is simple: when a fire breaks out, crews should already know the nearest viable water source — before they even arrive.
For now, the Fire Service continues to rely on existing knowledge of hydrants and natural sources, but Wickham’s comments and the President’s earlier proposals highlight a national priority. If the mapping initiative is completed and kept up to date, Guyana could cut response times, reduce property loss, and address one of the public’s most persistent criticisms of firefighting operations.
