Three women rewarded for GFS’ fire prevention month slogan

The Guyana Fire Service (GFS) has awarded three women for their participation in the Fire Prevention Month 2022 slogan competition.

The women were expected to capture “Fire Prevention, Oil and Gas and Diversity” and no less than six words or more than nine words.

The competition was launched on August 11 and concluded on September 9. It saw 15 people participating.

The Department of Public Information (DPI) spoke with the winning participants who explained the thought process behind their winning slogan.

First-place winner, Juanita Halley, a fire service officer, said it was a great feeling to achieve an award as a first-time participant.

She said, “I feel great because nothing of the sort ever happened before. I never entered any competition or anything of the sort.”

Halley said too that her slogan calls on persons to come together to aid in the prevention of fires instead of following the norms of videoing for social media.

“My slogan is let’s unite together to prevent fires. What happened is I looked around and I observed that from time-to-time persons out there instead of working with each other and contacting the fire service as earlier as possible many times we tend to lapse,” Halley said.

Additionally, second-place winner, Sandy Viveiros said her slogan aims to inspire people to work together.

“So, what inspired me to create this slogan is that it is very imperative to ensure their safety not only in persons’ homes but also in the community to ensure that lives and property are protected. I am very happy because it shows that my efforts were successful and it’s also inspiring to note that the slogan will allow other persons to work together”, Viveiros noted.

Priya Singh, the third-place winner, said she was happy that her slogan was recognised by the Guyana Fire Service.

“I did something good and the people from the fire service actually recognise that.”

Meanwhile, the GFS hosted its second fire service exhibition at the water street headquarters to spread awareness to to the public on how to protect themselves and their families from the destruction of fires.

The exhibition featured fire safety equipment, and various fire prevention and firefighting tools.

Persons were also informed on how to use a fire extinguisher and were provided with the opportunity to extinguish a fire.

In addition, the Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) were showcasing the various safety and first aid equipment.