Timely intervention of fire officers prevent fire disaster at BOST
The timely intervention of personnel of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), has prevented a fire disaster at the Kpone Barrier Depot of the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company Limited, (BOST).
The incident, which occurred less than 20 meters from one of the storage tanks at the BOST premises occurred at about 2 pm on Tuesday, January 25, 2022.
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The Operations Officer of the Tema Industrial Area station of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), Assistant Divisional Officer One (ADO 1) Paul Baidoo speaking to the journalists at the scene of the accident said his outfit received a distress call at 2:13 pm about a fire incident around BOST.
He said upon arrival at the accident scene, he and his team discovered that the fire, which started from a spot outside the BOST premises where some people were engaged in illegal sale of petroleum products in gallons, was spreading towards the tank farm inside the BOST premises.
Control
ADO1 Baidoo said the personnel deployed two fire engines, one from the Tema Industrial Area Station and anther other from the Motorway Fire station to tackle the fire which was borough under control in less than 20 minutes
He said no life was lost however, one salon car, a motor tricycle, with registration number M-20-GT 577, a bicycle, wheel barrow as well as gallons containing the fuel, a mixture of petrol and diesel were destroyed in the process.
He noted that in spite of several warnings served on the illegal fuel traders on the danger of their activity close to the depot, the traders have failed to heed to their warning adding that it behooves on the Kpone Katamanso Municipal Assembly and the Police to evict the illegal occupants of the structures close to the depot.
Eye witness
An eye witness , who is a lotto agent, said when the fire started, the traders attempted to put off the fire with a fire extinguisher but could not succeed. He added that attempts to get the fire wardens inside BOST to assist to put off the fire which was close to one of their furl transmission pipes was unsuccessful as he was told that the in-house fire tender was not available at the time of the incident.
He said a call was made to the GNFS by some of the fuel traders and within 30 minutes 30 minutes fire personnel arrived to contain the fire
Efforts to speak to officials at BOST on the impact of activities of the illegal fuel traders close to the premises of the storage facility was unsuccessful as security personnel on duty denied this reporter access to the facility.
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