Barbadians have been reacting on social media with outrage to the suffering of an asthmatic mother who said she feels she is slowly dying from years of a neighbour’s indiscriminate burning of garbage.
This follows the publication of a story on the back page of the Tuesday edition of Barbados TODAY Epaper, which highlighted the plight of 43-year-old Melissa Wiltshire of Bird’s Eye Ridge, St Patrick’s, Christ Church, who said she has been subjected to more than six years of her “uncaring” neighbour’s actions.
An emotional Wiltshire lamented that despite calls to the Barbados Fire Service (BFS) and the Barbados Police Service (BPS), she and other affected neighbours have not been able to get any relief.
“I cannot keep taking almost 20 tablets a day, steroids and a Turbuhaler and all sorts of things because somebody is inconsiderate,” the distraught mother said.
The story has brought a swift response from dozens of readers on Facebook, several of whom gave accounts of similar experiences.
Eileene Jordan wrote: “It is very unfair and heartless for a person or persons to be burning stuff. Where I live they burn stuff on a daily basis. I had to spend so much money going to the doctor with the headaches from sinus, sometimes I feel like if I would cut off my head.”
“That shows the amount of pain I does be getting and now it is affecting my teeth, giving me a toothache. The law is not protecting us no matter how much we complain,” she added.
Emma Phillips wrote that she, too, felt like she was “slowly dying from the daily burning somewhere in the gully side of the back of Haynesville, St James”.
“As a teacher working from home and with my son online, we are both also asthmatic and it is beyond frustrating. I called the fire department, they told me to call the police. I called the police, they told me to call the fire department. Total nonsense. This burning needs to stop,” she insisted.
Rag Man also reported a similar experience with the BFS and BPS.
“When you call the police about the indiscriminate burning, they tell you to call the fire department, that it doesn’t concern them, and when you call the fire department they tell you to call the police, that it is a police matter. So who is really responsible for dealing with it?” he questioned.
Nita Holligan wrote that the “disposal of garbage is as important as taking a bath, but not by burning it and emitting all the toxins to kill us slowly”.
Ann Linton asked if “that mess” was still going on in Barbados.
“So ignorant, my God. What people don’t get is we could be so inconsiderate of others, the ones with sinus and asthma. How uncaring these people are flaunting the laws all the time. What’s with our people? Same crap with the kites with the bulls on them; can’t sleep a whole night. This is how I spend six weeks of vacation in Barbados, my home. It’s sad,” Linton declared on the Barbados TODAY Facebook page.
Antonio Cozier noted that this was a problem in most communities where some people believe they have the right to “smoke out and slowly kill the people downwind”.
Betty Layne said: “This is so wrong. These persons should be charged for this uncaring act though…stupes.”
“I know what you all are going through. I am faced with the same problem,” commented Carlitha Andrews.
Richard Bourne did not mince his words. “Get them locked up.”
Several other Barbados TODAY Facebook followers seemed surprised that indiscriminate burning was still happening in Barbados.
Alex Alleyne remembered that “on the TV, a fire chief said burning of stuff in the back yard will soon be a thing of the past. I think that was back in the 1980s.”
Deputy Chief Fire Officer Henderson Patrick told Barbados TODAY on Tuesday that a new measure took effect about 18 months ago, making it illegal to burn refuse on one’s property without the permission of the Fire Service. He also warned that anyone breaching this law would be placed before the law courts.
While saying he was not aware of Wiltshire’s particular case, Patrick promised to launch an investigation into her situation, with a view to having it remedied. (EJ)
