Stemming the spate of fire disasters
Fire outbreaks have become common occurrences on the economic landscape, with people losing properties worth millions of cedis as a result.
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In worst case scenarios, lives have been lost to the blazing fires. Also, certain landmark buildings, such as the Foreign Affairs building and major markets in Accra and other cities have been gutted by fire.
Last Thursday, one of the oldest buildings in Kumasi that served as residential and office accommodation was destroyed by fire.
We are unable to get to the root causes of these fire outbreaks and also stop the fires, except to lay the blame on electrical faults and the ineffectiveness of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS).
The other time when the service was blamed in this same column for the spate of uncontrolled domestic and industrial fires, the GNFS tried to explain the reason for some of the failures.
Indeed, the Daily Graphic acknowledges that the GNFS is operating in very trying conditions and that until recently it was under-resourced.
Nonetheless, we think the woes of the GNFS could be attributed to its inability to tell its story to the public.
The causes of fires in homes, offices and especially the markets give the impression that as a nation we have failed to imbibe education on safety standards.
As of now, some traders still leave naked fires in the markets, even while assemblies’ bye-laws prohibit cooking in the markets. This practice goes on every day, and on some occasions in the full glare of revenue collectors from the assemblies.
The Daily Graphic has said time and again that the bane of this country is our inability to enforce regulations and even punish those who are found to have breached the laws to act as a deterrent to those who may want to do same.
The Bible envisaged the tendency among people to do wrong, hence its endorsement of sanctions in I Timothy 5:20 — Those who are sinning should be rebuked in the presence of all so that the rest may fear.
In the offices, homes and communities, and even at the national level, we fear to rebuke those who do wrong in order not to destroy relationships.
The Daily Graphic thinks that as a nation we need to be brutally frank to be able to confront the ills of society.
Our present attitude to the conduct of national business may not be the best approach to getting the deviants among us to conform. It is strange that in our society those in authority who must know better are the people who regularly plead on behalf of wrongdoers, thereby entrenching the culture of impunity.
We appeal to the district assemblies to, in partnership with the GNFS, enforce the regulations on fire safety and standards, so that those who breach them will be dealt with according to the laws of the land.
Fire outbreaks are occurring too often and we should take the necessary action to stem the tide to avoid unnecessary loss of properties and needless deaths.
