Advertisement

Fire Service educates Somanya market women

The  frequent fire outbreaks, especially in the markets this year, destroying properties running into millions of cedis is a major concern to the fire service stations throughout the country.

It is against this backdrop that the Somanya Fire Service Station in collaboration with the Yilo Krobo Municipal Assembly  has organised a  public education on fire outbreaks  for market women in Somanya.Christened, “know the dos and don’ts for your own safety”,  it was aimed at eliminating fire outbreaks in the market.

The Yilo Krobo Municipal Station Officer of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), Mr Nicholas Aryee, advised the market women to take extra precaution in the market in order to avoid fire outbreaks.

He said if the market women knew what they were supposed to do such as segregation of items in the market, avoidance of  linking gas cylinders, selling on the alleys and gangways in the market as well as illegal electricity connections, fire outbreaks would be minimised.

Mr Aryee said that their inspection of the market showed that the sellers arranged their wares anyhow without enough spaces and as such should there be any fire outbreak, it would destroy many items because of the closeness.

He said the market in general needed fire fighting equipment to combat  fire  should there be any outbreak. In the same way, all the lockable stores in the market should have smoke detectors.

According to the station officer, thorough inspection carried out in the lockable stores revealed that most of the owners of lockable stores used locally manufactured mats (apetorwoezor) as ceiling slates with meters of such stores inside the room, and said it was a dangerous practice.

In addition most of the wires in the market stores were hanging which were not good enough.

Mr Aryee disclosed that the Somanya Market was built so many years ago therefore the old wiring and the current electrical appliances being used were far below the electric supply and could easily cause fire outbreak, and therefore called for upgrading of the electrical wiring and supply of electricity to meet the current appliances.

He said presently, the market was overloaded with higher electrical appliances, and that failure to upgrade the power supply could spark off fire at any part of the market.

The Assistant Divisional Officer of the GNFS, Mr Ebenezer Djabatey, said the market women should organise periodic clean-up exercises and observe good house keeping practices. He explained that cleaning the markets and disposing of unwanted materials was  great safety measures to avoid fire outbreaks and elimination of fire hazards in the market.

A member of the Yilo Krobo Municipal Assembly, Mr Albert Akotey, advised that any electrical installations in the market should be done in line with the specifications of the ECG to avoid substandard wiring and its attendant problems.

Connect With Us : 0242202447 | 0551484843 | 0266361755 | 059 199 7513 |