GNFS launches fire safety week
The Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) has launched its 2013 Fire Safety Week, with a call on Ghanaians to ensure they have adequate fire safety measures in place.
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The week-long celebration, which is on the theme, “Fire safety - the role of the citizenry,” will be marked in all the regions with the view to creating and sustaining an awareness of the dangers of fires and outline the role of citizens to support the fire service.
As part of the week-long activities, the personnel would undertake education on fire safety, organise a seminar for service providers and inter-district games and undertake an inspection of business premises to ensure that public places comply with fire safety measures.
The inspection exercise has become necessary in the wake of incessant fire outbreaks that have engulfed the country in recent times.
Fifty-seven people lost their lives in 3,077 fire incidents recorded across the country between January and June, this year. The figure represents an average of four deaths and 522 fires monthly with financial loss amounting to GH¢2.83 million monthly.
A further breakdown of the figures indicates that at least 128 fires occur weekly with a life lost and a financial loss of GH¢700,000.
The data, released by the Ghana National Fire Service (GNSF), gave the breakdown as 1,116 domestic, 110 industrial, 367 vehicular and 58 institutional fires, while 274 were attributed to electrical faults.
Speaking at the launch in Accra yesterday, the Greater Accra Regional Fire Officer, DCFO Kwame Kwarteng, while commending the firefighters for the effort they put into their work, urged the public to alert the service immediately there was a fire outbreak.
“Install fire detectors, re-engineer burglar proofs for fire escape,” he told home owners.
The acting Director of Fire Safety of the GNFS, Assistant Chief Fire Officer Ebenezer Simpson, for his part, expressed concern about the practice of overloading of power sockets and inappropriate waste disposal, which he said contributed to fire outbreaks.
By Edmund Smith-Asante & Salomey Appiah/Daily Graphic/Ghana