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No legally connected electricity at Walker's Place of Safety at time of 2018 fire

Human Rights Advocate Susan Goffe, speaking with RJR's Dionne Jackson Miller on Monday's edition of Beyond the Headlines

 

Information recently released by the government in response to an Access to Information (ATI) request, reveals that there was no legally provided electricity at Walker’s Place of Safety in St. Andrew at the time of a deadly fire in 2018.

Two girls died in the fire during the early morning of January 16, 2018.

Information provided to human rights advocate and blogger Susan Goffe, in response to her ATI request, reveals that electricity to the property was disconnected Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) on October 30, 2017 for an overdue balance. Then, on January 1, 2018 the metre was removed. This was two weeks before the fire took place.

Letters from the Office of the Children’s Advocate (OCA) to several state agencies indicate that the OCA’s investigation concluded that evidence existed of an illegal connection at Walker’s Place of Safety at the time of the fire.

In one such letter, Deputy Children’s Advocate Henderson Downer writes that “…we are now sure that there was illicit consumption of electricity during the period October 30, 2017 to January 16, the night of the fire.”

He highlighted the pertinent section of the applicable statute “that makes the illicit use of electricity an offence,” adding that the police were investigating the matter “with a view of prosecuting the miscreants involved.”

Additional correspondence provided in response to Mrs Goffe’s ATI request indicate that the OCA was investigating whether the illegal connection could have been the cause of the fire.

The Jamaica Fire Brigade's own report had concluded that an electrical short circuit was the cause.

 

 

 

 



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