Fire safety audit of children's homes completed - CPFSA

The Child Protection and Family Services Agency says it is taking measures to strengthen fire prevention and safety at children’s homes and places of safety.

The agency's Public Relations and Communications Manager Rochelle Dixon told JIS News in a recent interview that safety audits have been completed at the island’s 54 public and private facilities.

She said that in addition to the audits, the Jamaica Fire Brigade will be conducting inspections of the homes to determine which facilities need to be outfitted with smoke detectors and fire extinguishers.

“We are starting with Maxfield Park Children’s Home, which is semi-private. We are doing it based on priority, meaning those homes which have a long list of immediate needs and interventions. We are going to... ensure that all of our homes have sufficient fire extinguishers and smoke detectors, and upgrade them if needs be so that we can respond in terms of disaster plans, adjustments to building plans and establishing escape routes,” she said.

Dixon informed that the agency will be partnering with the University of Technology (UTech) to ensure that disaster plans are in place for children’s homes.

“The majority of our homes have disaster evacuation plans. What we want to do is ensure that all of our homes are compliant. Even though we have the day fire drills, we are now looking at the night fire drills because what we realise is that most of the times fires happen in the night. We are extending the drills to the night to see how the children respond to it,” she indicated.

Dixon further stated that measures will be put in place for children with special needs.

“In our homes, many of our children have special needs, so we are looking to see how we will incorporate a trapdoor or a special exit point for children who are wheelchair-bound, on medication or are epileptic. We are trying to see how much we can do before the end of the year once we get the assessment from the JFB,” she said.

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