GNFS begins Home Fire Safety Certification Project
The Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) has begun a project that seeks to ensure that all home owners and individuals obtain fire certificates for their places of abode.
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Dubbed: ‘Home Fire Safety Certification Project’ or ‘DumGya’ (Put out the fire), the project is aimed at tackling the ever-increasing domestic fire outbreaks in the country.
It is being implemented in partnership with private sector players under the national policy on public-private partnership on service delivery.
Speaking at a stakeholders’ meeting in Accra yesterday, the Deputy Chief Fire Officer in charge of Policy and Planning at the GNFS Headquarters, Mr Kwame Kwarteng, said the project would focus on making sure all home owners put in place fire safety measures in their various homes.
Statistics at the GNFS indicate that domestic fires which occurred from 2012 to 2015 represented 41.02 per cent of the fire outbreaks recorded nationwide in the same period.
In all, 24,500 fires occurred in the country in the last four years, out of which 10,051 were domestic fires.
The service also recorded 188 deaths and 267 injuries, while an estimated GH₵59,460,346.23 was lost as a result of the destruction of properties in the last four years.
Strong alliance
Mr Kwarteng said over the past years, the GNFS had initiated many projects to reduce the rampant fire outbreaks in the country.
“Currently, domestic fire outbreak leads with 41 per cent, with bush and vehicular fires following in the top three,” he said.
Outlining some of the measures the GNFS intended to use to address the problem, he said efforts had been made to partner many organisations to ensure that all the safety requirements were followed.
The DumGya project, he said, was one of the many projects the GNFS intended to use to increase safety in homes.
Mr Kwarteng, therefore, called on other organisations to form a strong alliance with the GNFS to help address issues that led to fire outbreaks.