Buy your own protective clothing if you can — Chief Fire Officer tells men

Fire fighters in the country have been advised by their boss to buy their own protective clothing, in the meantime, to save themselves from injury and death during firefighting, while government makes provision to get some for them.

The Acting Chief Fire Officer, Mr Edwin Ekow Blankson, who gave the admonition during an interaction with personnel from the Fire Service in Kumasi said he bought his own protective clothing and pointed to his Public Relations Officer, Mr Billy Anaglatey, who was in the room that “he also bought his own protective clothing”.

“I am saying that if they are in the position to buy them, they can do so. It is for your life, now those people whose bodies were charred those people burnt in Takoradi recently, what are they going to do? I am not a medical officer but I don’t see how they can be their normal self. I pray for just a miracle but why should it be so,” he said.

He noted that the problem of provision of protective clothing from government to the service has persisted since 1963.

Mr Blankson also attributed the lack of protective clothing to the reason why personnel from the service fail to tackle some fire outbreaks.