The Ghana National Fire Service has revealed that they are poorly or under-equipped to meet safety standards in the country.
The Ghana National Fire Service said for them to meet the international service standard more staff needs to be employed to be able to serve all the 16 regions in the country.
PRO for the service Ellis Robinson Okoe in an interview with Joy FM said their staff strength is very poor which will make it difficult for them to handle all safety concerns in the country.
He also laments the lack of modern fire fighting logistics which will aid them in making their work efficient.
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“We have a lot of challenges over the years we have not had modern fire fighting vehicles or tenders, our personnel strength…the international ration is 1:800 but in Fire Service, we have 1:3,000 so it means that we must close the gap to be able to reach areas especially the new regions, we must be able to employ people and spread them nationwide..”
Fire outbreaks
The Ghana Fire Service last month revealed that 243 fire incidents have been recorded in 13 days as the dry season intensify.
Due to this, the Ghana National Fire Service has cautioned Ghanaians to be fire alert as the harmattan season intensify in the country.
The harmattan season is most often characterised with fire outbreaks in most parts of the country destroying peoples properties especially farmlands.
According to the Fire Service, they have recorded 243 fire since 24th of December 2019.
Ellis Okoe Robinson shared some safety tips that Ghanaians need to take notice of to avoid any fire outbreak in their homes.
“You should ensure that your kitchen there are certain safety measures you put in place so we don’t need to keep flammable things in the house like petrol, turpentine and the rest and a lot of people use gas in the house, you will observe that people don’t maintain their regulators they only wait for it to get spoil and put stone on it, it’s very dangerous if you are cooking and the……..catches fire you just need to cover the pan with the lead and then put off the burner, should your cylinder catch fire you need a wet towel and stand a few meters away and cover it gently, we should also avoid grown weeds around our house………”
