The fire chief should be suspended without pay until further investigation.I have been living in NY for almost 30 years and have never seen anything like that. Here the firemen go into burning buildings and risk their lives to save others.Every possible equipment should be brought in to dig that building down and rip up what needs to be ripped up just to get those six people out alive. I felt that the fire chief did not try hard enough.HE SHOULD BE FIRED.

Why are folks so quick to blame the fire chief. What people should be concerned with is helping law enforcement to find the criminals that did this horrifying act and also to find out if this building was up to the fire code. Outing fire is not an easy job. Firemen can be killed in this process. This, I hope, will serve as an eye-opener for people putting up buildings that should be checked by honest inspectors to find out if they are up to fire standards. I would also like to add that when these criminals are caught that they should be put to death. Our laws have to change to suit the times we are living in. Making excuses for this kind of atrocious behavior will not work.

Mr. Fire Chief:
I AM NOT CONVINCE AT ALL.
MY HEART IS TELLING ME THAT IF YOUR MEN WERE PROPERLY TRAINED, ALL OF THOSE GIRLS WOULD HAVE BEEN ALIVE TODAY.

Just go and tell your story to a toddler, he/she might be convince.

Firefighting training is an on going process an most standards are set after major incidents occur where fire officers loose they lives and alternative ways of doing things are found. Maybe what most people here want were several dead firemen? We are not trained to risk our lives we are trained to safely do our jobs . (EOWK). easy only when known . fact is the public who are not trained and even those who always know everything should know no two fires are the same . so fire officers did what we were trained to do. Lessons learn now will mean improvement in the future.

To all of you out there that are pointing your fingers remember the three of them are pointing back at you. Who should be blamed, the government for not passing the building code,or the contractor for making short cuts,the businessman to start building with out permission and only pay a fine less than $4000 so that he could operate, of the fire chief for not having every tool possible, or the police for not finding the chicken galore suspect. This a tragedy but we have to learn from it. how many of us go into our local banks there is only one that has 2 exits the old barclays, supermarkets that have 2 or 3 exits and only one is for the public. stop and check. the building code is needed we the people must demand it safety first.

After the fire at the Sheraton shopping centre in ChristChurch, you’d think that the officials would survey all malls. There was not a sprinkler system in place then! How many more malls are unsafe? Do not wait for another life to be lost to find out. act now!

The fire chief have said nothing.  He gave no details of what they did.  What tools were on hand to carry out this action.  What has trained men have to do with performance during a particular incident.Once again we are going to bury an incident under the carpet without a proper public inquiry.
The nation newspaper performance in asking what really happen on Friday night is most disappointing

Heartbroken

In other countries the Fire Prevention Officers visit premises to ensure that they are up to code, they also have the power to close premises down if the businesses continually fail to come up to code.
Just wondering if those same rules apply in Barbados.

The comment about the preference for back doors is not a direct quote so I can’t jump all over it. Say it ain’t so. If you need doors to gain entry, you’re not a trained and equipped Fire and Rescue team. You’re no different from Joe Blow! Sad on so many levels.

Mr. Fire Chief

First off yuh need tuh watch what yuh say in times like these” You would have prefered if there was a back door nah cut it boss” If your job was always to be that easy then all ah we would be firemen and women!

I appreciate that you think that that your men did all they could, however, I am more incline to believe Mr, Babb and the other guy when they said they did all they could!!

So come again!!

I’m tired of people blaming the firefighters and reasoning they were lazy….ya’ll wud feel better if they went in and the death toll went up? stupes the chief has guidelines to follow and sending his men into a situation where there’s no hope for their lives is highly irresponsible. Everyone is hurt and angry but don’t go about blaming those not responsible blame those who did it. You all want someone to blame for it all but don’t blame it on de firefighters. Others tried to enter the building and had to retreat due to the smoke and heat its not in every fire an firefighter can just waltz in save people and leave.

Most of persons commenting here were not there, further more, most are not even in the island. Don’t let your anger be fueled by hearsay, and rumors. The physical appearance of the Fire Chief has nothing to do with the quality of work given. I assume Bajans would have felt better if a few fire officers had died. Then they would be heroes right? All this anger an rage for persons who came to assist when persons that were there from the beginning stages still could not get into the building. Why don’t we all condemn the fire men and not call them when you have fires, since most of you seem to be more experienced commentators, and can talk any situation under control. The firemen did the best they could, in the situation. So because 41 persons and 6 trucks were there, they should all rush the building and say screw death, what’s losing many to save few, at least the public would be happy? Try looking for the ones that caused the tragedy, and stop fueling what you don’t know about.

I dont want to point fingers because I don’t know all the particulars of this incident, but I will say that I saw pictures of the fire. My issues with the Firefighters on scene is, why were you using a booster line to fight a dwelling fire, where were your gloves. Why were you fighting the fire from outside, where were your facemasks????? I wasn’t impressed with what I saw!

Why is everyone jumping all over the Fire Chief? The Fire Dept did everything that they could under the circumstances.

Stop comparing Barbados Fire Dept to NY/FL and England Fire Depts…no comparison, period.

Focus, the criminals are the heartless, cold-blooded bastards here, not the fire dept.

I live in NY and lived in FL and my family lives in London. We have all heard about the firemen that enter buildings to save lives but what you all are failing to mention is how many of them often lose their lives or sustain lasting injuries in taking on such great risks and act of bravery.

We are all angry at this heinous crime that happened in our beloved island but pointing fingers do not change the elements of the crime. Our priority should be finding the murders and making sure that they painfully pay for this pointless act of violence.

Furthermore appropriate fire codes and employees’ safety in the workplace are regulations that should be immediately implemented.