Fire department targets special-needs community for safety drills
Published:Saturday | November 5, 2022 | 12:05 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Members of Westmoreland’s special-needs community and their caregivers have been empowered to prevent fire-related disasters, following the Westmoreland Fire Department’s fire safety simulation exercise in the Llandilo community on Friday, October 28.
The exercise was held at the Llandilo School of Special Education and saw the school’s 133 students and 35 members of staff practising fire safety drills with firefighters from the nearby Savanna-la-Mar fire station.
The session was held as part of the Jamaica Fire Brigade’s (JFB) celebration of Fire and Life Safety Awareness Week under the theme ‘Preserving the Nation through Life Safety and Fire Prevention’.
As part of the safety simulation, the firefighters’ swiftness of arrival and the subsequent speed at which designated ‘victims’ were removed from the school building were timed, and the safety techniques were gauged and evaluated. The staff members also got to demonstrate what they had learned from previous sessions with the fire department.
District Officer Christopher Stone, the person in charge of fire prevention at the Westmoreland Fire Department, told The Gleaner that the simulation was critical to give assistance for vulnerable groups such as the intellectually challenged, who may not be as readily able as other people to respond to disasters.
“This year, we decided that it would be a national approach where we would select the most vulnerable group, under which this institution falls, and we would practise and have training with members of staff, and we are here today to execute what was practised,” Stone explained.
“It is important due to the fact that, with a vulnerable group, some are not able-bodied like many other persons, and as such during an emergency the assistance is greatly needed,” he added.
That position was supported by Nicole Foster, the acting principal of the 146-year-old school, who noted that the students and their parents, who witnessed the simulation, were able to learn some much-needed fire safety guidelines to apply at home.
“Our students are some of the most vulnerable persons that we have in our society because they have intellectual disabilities. As a result of that, having this exercise will not only help them in the event of a fire here on our school compound, but also at home they will understand some basic things they need to do,” said Foster. “Some of the parents were saying they were happy that this was done, and I think it opened the eyes of the parents to see that this is something they need to practise at home.”
The simulation took place five days after the funeral service for seven-year-old twin brothers Jayden and Jorden Laing and their eight-year-old brother Adrianno Laing, who died in a house fire at their home in Springfield, Westmoreland, on September 4.
The fire had reportedly started some time after a candle was lit in the house due to an electrical outage in the area at the time.
Another sibling, 13-year-old Adrianna Laing, suffered serious burns in the fire and had to be flown overseas for emergency surgery. She is reportedly speaking and breathing on her own at present, although she still has other medical treatments to do.
In reference to that tragedy, Stone said that the Westmoreland Fire Department carried out a follow-up education drive in the Springfield community on Thursday, October 27, a day before the simulation exercise at the Llandilo School of Special Education.
“Concerning that tragic event that took place in Springfield, just yesterday (Thursday) we were in that area doing our community fire and life safety walk, where more than 30 firefighters, with assistance from the Social Development Commission, were in that area, and we went and interacted with the public, issued pamphlets and installed posters at corner shops with fire safety tips. Then we went to the Negril area where we completed an impactful day empowering citizens as to best safety practices,” said Stone.