27 fires tax BFS

Firemen had to battle 27 grass fires yesterday in four different parishes. At press time, the last known report to the Barbados Fire Service (BFS) was received at 7:32 p.m.
The fires were in St Philip, St George, Christ Church and St Michael. Some schools and businesses in close proximity to the districts were affected by the thick, acrid smoke from the blazes.
Commenting on the heavy workload yesterday, Chief Fire Officer Wilfred Marshall said: “It was a pretty hectic day.”
Marshall explained that the prolonged dry conditions contributed to the blazes. Indicating that in the absence of an investigation he could not say definitively that some of the fires were being deliberately set, he however noted that a number of them were occurring at night. (SP)