Yet again
in today's national news section of The Point we read of fire disaster, this
time in the Upper River Region. Too often in this and other newspapers we read
of tragedies of this kind. Thankfully in this case there were no deaths or
serious injuries reported, but in other cases we have not been so lucky. The
causes of these fires in some cases remain unknown but very often they are
caused by preventable issues such as cooking fires not being properly
extinguished or flammable liquids not being properly stored. Of course some
fires can be said to be unavoidable acts of god and there is little we can do
to prevent these, but all others we must work to make a thing of the past.
Education and proper safety practice will reduce the instance of fire outbreak
to a very large degree and these are the areas we must focus on.In this we do not speak of expensive
sensitization courses but merely the application of common sense, as in the
case of storing petrol or other flammable materials or extinguishing fires
properly. This knowledge can be handed down to the younger members of any
community by the elders and we must encourage more of this.
The one positive we take from these terrible experiences is that in every case the community rally around the stricken family and not only help them to put out the blaze and rescue what they can but also support them in the time following the tragedy. They do this by providing food clothing and shelter and this is a true example of the Gambian spirit. We pray that soon the pages of our newspapers will be free of these kinds of stories. If we come together and spread the message of safety then this dream is attainable. To all those affected by these tragedies we pray that you may recover what you have lost and not suffer such misfortune again.
"Think where man's glory most begins and ends, And say my glory was I had such friends."
W.B. Yeats
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