Ashanti Fire Command institutes award scheme for journalists
The Ashanti Regional Command of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) has instituted a scheme to award media houses and journalists who report more activities of the service.
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The aim is to encourage the media to devote more time and attention to fire education.
The Regional Commander, Deputy Chief Fire Officer (DCFO) Semekor Fiadzo, who announced this during an interaction with journalists in Kumasi, said the media played a very important role in the dissemination of information and was a major stakeholder in the fight to reduce the incidence of fire outbreaks in the region.
Collaboration
He said the service would need the collaboration of the media to reduce the increasing incidence of fire outbreaks in the country and prayed that the media, particularly the electronic media, would assist the GNFS to educate residents of the region on fire safety.
That, he said, was very important as the country entered into the harmattan season which “brings with it lot of bush fires as a result of the dry and windy weather.”
According to Mr Fiadzo, what had contributed greatly to the devastating effect of fire outbreaks in the region was the late call to the service.
For lack of access to the Fire Service, most members of the public who needed to call the service rather resorted to the media to report fire incidents.
The situation is further aggravated when the media house in question does not also have the contact of the service in a particular location.
The media interaction was, therefore, used to also educate the media on how to prevent fire incidents and assist the command, especially in public education.
DCFO Fiadzo said it was time to reverse the trend where the public would call media houses which did not have the numbers to the fire service and, therefore, announced the incident on air to draw the attention of the service. He said that process delayed the response time.
The regional commander thus appealed to the media to let the public know about the emergency numbers by announcing them on their shows as part of their community service.
Education
The Regional Fire Command also had an open day for the media where media personnel were taken through fire drills and basic fire safety tips.
The participants were also taken through fire fighting skills and were made to demonstrate their skills through simulation exercises.
He said the target of the Regional Command was to reduce the number of fire outbreaks in the region by 60 per cent.
Fire incidents
As of the end of October this year, the region recorded 1,205 fire incidents, with domestic fires leading the statistics.
There were 387 domestic fires in the region, representing a 32.1 per cent of the total fire outbreaks in the region.
Last year, the Ashanti Region recorded 382 domestic fires out of 903 total fire outbreaks in the first 10 months.