Barbados’ public fire safety agency is turning to the private sector for expanded partnership, as it works to scale up life-saving fire prevention education across all levels of the island’s school system. The call for greater corporate collaboration came from Fire Officer Shalika Charles on Tuesday, in remarks delivered following the conclusion of the Barbados Fire Service’s annual Primary School Fire Safety Quiz. This year’s competition was hosted at the Ministry of Education Transformation’s Media and Resource Department, located in the Elsie Payne Complex on Constitution Road, St. Michael.
Charles explained that the quiz initiative first launched in 2023 as a cornerstone event marking the Fire Service’s 70th anniversary. Public response from students, school administrators and community members was overwhelmingly positive, prompting organizers to transition the quiz into a recurring annual programming staple. “We made the call to lock this in as a yearly event because it creates a space to actively engage primary school students, school leadership, and entire school communities around core messages of fire safety, fire prevention and general life-saving preparedness,” Charles noted in her address.
Unlike one-off outreach campaigns, Charles emphasized that the knowledge students gain through the program extends far beyond the competition venue, creating rippling public safety benefits across Barbados’ communities. “This knowledge doesn’t stay locked in this room or just inside the classroom. These kids carry what they learn back to their households, and that information really can be the difference between life and death in an emergency,” she said.
Charles stressed that long-term growth of the program and direct, tangible benefits for participating students depend entirely on expanded partnerships with private sector entities across the island. “We’re calling on more corporate stakeholders to come on board as sponsors, because that’s how we make sure this program delivers real, lasting value to every student that takes part,” she said. Currently, the program already counts major local firm Sagicor as a returning title sponsor for 2024, with the company stepping up to deliver critical safety resources to participants.
As part of its sponsorship this year, Sagicor provided free smoke alarms to every student who competed in the quiz, directly advancing the Fire Service’s broader goal of boosting fire safety preparedness in residential properties across Barbados. Additionally, the company donated fire extinguishers to the households of this year’s top-performing students. Charles noted that every piece of safety equipment distributed through the program directly contributes to reducing fire risk across local communities. “All of these resources add up to make homes across Barbados safer for residents,” she said.
Looking ahead, the Barbados Fire Service has laid out clear plans to expand the program beyond the primary school system, with the next phase focusing on integrating secondary school students to reach older age groups and deepen community-wide engagement. “We’re eager to bring this outreach into secondary schools too, so older students get the same chance to learn these critical skills and engage with our safety messaging,” Charles explained.
Beyond expanding the quiz competition, the Fire Service is also pushing to embed fire safety education into the permanent, year-round school curriculum, rather than limiting public education activities to a single annual event. “Our end goal is to have fire safety taught consistently throughout the entire school year,” Charles said. To make this long-term goal a reality, she added that deeper ongoing collaboration with the Ministry of Education Transformation will be critical to building a sustainable initiative that delivers consistent benefits to Barbados’ younger generations.
At the close of this year’s competition, organizers named Arthur Smith Primary School as the overall winner of the 2024 Primary School Fire Safety Quiz.