Fire service trains institutions in safety
The Ghana National Fire service (GNFS) has started a series of fire safety courses for some institutions to curb the alarming trend of fire disasters.
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Twenty participants from unibank , Women’s World Banking, Energy, Merchant Ghana Commercial and the Fidelity banks have begun training at the Fire Service Training School in Jamestown.
The GNFS will also organise fire safety training sessions for managers of manufacturing industries, health care centres, schools and colleges, as well as assembly areas like churches and stadia.
Addressing the participants at the opening ceremony of the training programme, the acting Chief Fire Officer, Brigadier-General John Bosco Guyiri, said the training had become necessary because fire safety management was a shared responsibility, and required all to play their respective roles effectively in preventing fire outbreaks.
He said in spite of the service’s attempts to institute more measures to reduce the outbreaks of fire, the public had, on some occasions, made their work extremely difficult.
He cited instances when victims of fire outbreaks attacked personnel of the GNFS in the personnel’s attempt to put out fires and added that other challenges the service faced were the difficulty in investigating fires, since on several occasions, those affected ransacked the area, making it difficult for the personnel to gather evidence.
Brig. Gen Guyiri, therefore, advised the public to appreciate the challenges that the Fire Service personnel encountered in their line of duty, and to be considerate towards them.
“No matter how small a fire is when it starts, call the Fire Service immediately”, he advised, adding that most often, fire outbreaks were the result of individual actions.
There has been no reduction in fire disasters in the country and more fire outbreaks are being recorded.
From January to May, this year, 2,870 fires, estimated to cost the nation GH¢15,771,032 were recorded.
By Ruby Efe Ani-Adjei/Daily Graphic/Ghana
