By Glenda Anderson,
Freelance Writer
THE TRAGEDY of 135 people left homeless by a large fire that destroyed the eight houses they occupied in Denham Town last Friday has been made worse by controversy over whose responsibility it is to provide initial and direct relief.
They were provided with some clothing, blankets and groceries from emergency welfare agencies yesterday but Jamaica Labour Party Councillor for the area, Desmond McKenzie, has charged that the effort was not enough.
"Based on the magnitude of the fire it should not to be a request coming from anybody or any special agency. It is a necessity. Up until now no one has collected any data on the fire. I have had to ask the Ministry (of Labour and Social Security) to work along with the list which I have put together."
He said so far all that has been received were 40 blankets from the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM); 30 bags of groceries from the Ministry and additional food items from the Red Cross.
"Our biggest problem right now is shelter... even have people staying in the office and this is a disaster affecting four babies, one as young as four days old. I believe that we are being marginalised because of our political affiliation."
"The people of Central Kingston got maximum support less than 48 hours after they had their fire and it was on a much smaller scale than this one."
However, according to Acting Director General of the ODPEM, Paul Saunders, the agency's mandate was to act in a co-ordinating role and not as a direct response unit. "We follow the stated welfare procedure and that's how we respond. We don't look to whether it is a People's National Party PNP or Jamaica Labour Party area," he said.
Outlining the mechanisms in place for public assistance, Mr. Saunders explained that every parish has a disaster committee with a subcommittee for Welfare and Relief. The parish manager is also the chairman of this subcommittee. Any request for relief is communicated through the subcommittee to the representatives of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security. He added that the Ministry of Labour and Social Security then had responsibility for conducting assessments into fires regardless of their size and submitting a report for assistance to the ODPEM.
"We come in if it's a large fire and sometimes even if it's not, but our mandate is to deal with fires which affect twenty or more families. This, however, does not negate other agencies doing their roles. In this case we are now awaiting a detailed assessment of the situation from the Ministry of Labour," Mr. Saunders said.
The process involves an initial assessment by a team from the Ministry of Labour which is passed on to the ODPEM. A detailed report including a fire report is then passed on to the Ministry of Labour for provision of emergency or rehabilitation grants.
Citing communication glitches Myrie Nembhard manager for the Duke Street office of the Ministry of Labour revealed that measures are now in place to assist with relief of the victims. "We are working with the Fire Department to prepare a report for submission, but we have been assisting with food, personal and comfort items."
The fire which affected 41 families and 135 persons, is the eighth in the constituency since the beginning of the year.
