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Let’s stem the spate of fires proactively

Let’s stem the spate of fires proactively

Sometime in 1983, our country witnessed a relentless attack on the environment by bushfires that added to a famine that brought the economy of the country to its knees.

The fires, which seemed to have occurred everywhere, destroyed the little that was being grown to address the prevailing famine.

So much can be written about the untold hardships that occasioned the days of these events, especially, when during that same period, Ghana was faced with how to contain nearly one million Ghanaians deported from Nigeria.

 

Thankfully, the situation abated even though bushfires are still prevalent but not on a level where it can lead to national hardship such as we experienced in those years.

Rather strangely, in these modern days, we no longer have the situation of fire burning bushes but homes, properties, market centres and industries.

The situation seems to prevail in spite of all the awareness creation on infernos by the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), the media and the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE).

Somehow, it seems as though the recurrent fire outbreaks have become a dark spell that looks at Ghanaians squarely in the face.

We are still young in the year, yet fire outbreaks are being recorded in almost all the regions across the nation.

Sources have it that recorded fire cases in the first 14 days of January, 2016 in the Ashanti Region represents over 50 per cent of the 219 registered cases in the whole of January last year. In the first two weeks of January this year, the Ashanti Region recorded 114 fires.

The situation remains unchanged in the nation’s capital, the Greater Accra Region, where from January 1 to 10 this year 51 fires were recorded.

In the midst of the challenges of the economy, these fires are drawing us back and if care is not taken, could rewind our forward march.

This is in the light of the fact that the bread baskets of the country, evident in the stores, industrial areas, business places and homes, are being razed down by fires.

Some of the causes have been attributed to wrong electricity connections, the use of easily combustible materials close to fire sources and sometimes the total disregard for caution and care.

The time has come for us to take the threats of these fires seriously and the Daily Graphic thinks the National Security should take more interest in the spate of fires.

The outbreaks at the Central Market in Kumasi and at a warehouse on the Spintex Road in Accra have raised the stakes higher in the effort to find ways to deal with the frequent outbreak of fires.

It must be noted that when fire razes down homes and commercial properties, the consequences are grave on the victims and the nation.

The Daily Graphic thinks that as a nation, we are not doing enough to curb the causes of the fires, especially in our markets.

We call on the metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies to take steps to protect all properties.

The Daily Graphic expresses its heartfelt sympathy to all the victims of the latest fires.

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