Let's prevent these disturbing fires
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A review of the fire outbreaks indicates that these fires have affected farms, private property, electricity installations, transformers, homes, drinking spots and markets.
Last Saturday, a DAILY GRAPHIC report on fires quoted the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) as having recorded 2,201 fires which claimed the lives of 18 people, injured 19 and caused damage to property estimated at GH¢16 million, in the first quarter of this year alone.
This report does not include the most recent ones, some of which occurred at the Kantamanto and Makola Number Two markets.
In the final days of last year, merchandise running into hundreds of thousands of cedis was destroyed at the Kumasi Central Market. Not long after, the archives of the Tema Development Corporation were gutted. Fires were recorded in many other parts of the country subsequently.
Only yesterday, the Kumasi Central Market recorded its second fire in four months, resulting in 2,000 traders losing massive property. Again, a house was burnt at Trasaaco and a two year-old boy also reportedly burnt at Nungua.
These are but a few of the fire incidents which must now engage the attention of all of us in our effort to find a lasting solution to such occurrences.
Many factors have been mentioned as the causes of the fire outbreaks in the markets, among them illegal connection of electricity, cooking in the markets, sabotage and even cable-chewing mice.
In the past, the GNFS had been helpless in fighting these fires because of lack of appropriate equipment to handle them. Now the GNFS has been equipped with at least some basic tools to handle these fires when they occur.
Anytime these fires occur, fire-prevention and management experts have come up with suggestions, some of which, we believe, could go a long way to stem the spate of fires in the country.
We note that the availability of these pieces of equipment alone cannot be sufficient in our attempt to successfully prevent or fight fires, for the equipment becomes useful only in the event of fires.
More effort should, therefore, be placed on fire prevention through education.
The government should further resource the GNFS by making budgetary allocation to the service to enable it to fully carry out its mandate through fire education and audits.
By doing so, the service would be able to fully educate the public on basic fire safety procedures so that they would know how to prevent fire outbreaks or what to do when the fires occur.
We believe that once precautionary measures become part of our daily lives, we will know what to do to avoid the occurrence of fires.
District, municipal and metropolitan assemblies must take steps to incorporate fire safety measures into the existing and new markets being constructed.
Again, the GNFS must live up to its promise to start prosecuting officials of establishments that have not adopted fire safety measures to deal with fire outbreaks on their premises.
The incidents of fire outbreaks appear to be getting out of hand and, therefore, indicate a very high level of disrespect for fire safety measures.
The earlier we sat up as a nation, the better it would be for us. Let’s all put our hands to the wheel.