I FIND THE following comments expressed in the Nation newspaper disconcerting:
“A power surge caused damage to the home of Fay Worrell . . . . The wooden home . . . had slight damage and most of her insured electrical items were burnt.” (August 18)
“When the smoke dissipated, Batson said, every electrical appliance in her kitchen was damaged – the washing machine, microwave and toaster oven were burnt out.” (August 11)
“I was about to get ready for work when I heard pax pax, pax, pax. In two-twos I see the house catch afire.” (August 11)
Within recent times fires have destroyed a number of houses across Barbados. This is cause for concern. About a year ago I raised this with Jeffrey Bostic, Member of Parliament for Bridgetown, and suggested that an investigation be launched to determine how many of these were electrical fires. Barbadians are casually writing off these fires as due to human error.
We need to get to the bottom of this. What is to blame for this unfortunate situation? I am calling on the Barbados Fire Service to give us some statistics on the number of electrical fires experienced annually.
The onus is on the Government Electrical Department to launch an investigation into these fires. The reason for these fires must be revealed and steps taken to correct the fault and to compensate where necessary.
– E. Jerome Davis
