The slum was not only a ‘residential area’ but it also served as a business centre for the victims, who are mostly head porters and petty traders who ply their trade in the central business district of Accra.
We have, on a countless number occasions, made the point that every fire outbreak should serve as a wake-up call to the authorities to put in place the requisite mechanisms to prevent a recurrence.
We are aware that the government and some local authorities set up investigative committees to find out the causes of these fires and recommend measures that will forestall future fires at our markets.
The government even had to fly in fire experts from the United States of America (USA) to help with the investigations.
While we await the outcome of these investigations, we think it is imperative that the regulatory and local authorities take proactive measures to stem the fires.
It is a fact that the wiring in some of our establishments, homes and markets has never seen any change since they were installed many years ago. In such instances, we do not need a committee to give directions for those installations to be rewired, since the statutory bodies such as the district assemblies and the Ghana National
Fire Service can whip everybody into line.
If people paid with the taxpayers’ money to regulate and enforce safety issues remain in a slumber, we wonder what will happen to the recommendations of the various committees set up to look into the fires.
The Daily Graphic urges the authorities not to shy away from punishing those who do not comply with safety standards in our establishments, markets and homes.
Daily Graphic/Ghana
