By Latrishka Thomas
To date, the All Saints Fire Station has responded to 53 brush (bush and grass) and 12 garbage-related fires for the year, a situation which prompted Fire Chief Elvis Weaver to state that “this is just not good enough”.
Weaver told Observer that many fire calls have been coming out of the St Paul’s constituency and the authorities “are not sure as to how some of these fires are being started”.
However, he said the department has confirmed that some of them have been caused when residents attempt to burn rubbish and grass, and then the fires get out of control.
While making an appeal to residents to help reduce the number of fires, he advised that “they must stop lighting fires without permits”, and added that some form of action will be taken against offenders who fail to get the necessary permission beforehand.
“We are determined that we are going to take action against anyone caught lighting fires without permits and we have suspended permits for just lighting fires in yards and so on,” the head of the Antigua Fire Services stated.
He said that permits are only going to be issued to farmers who are “clearing their land and burning”.
Just over the weekend, a fire, which burned for three days, consumed a significant portion of the hiking trail at Wallings Reservoir.