CalBank test fire safety readiness in new Ridge head office building

The management of CalBank has organised a fire simulation exercise at its new head office building located at Ridge in Accra to enable the bank to assess the safety readiness measures instituted to handle emergency cases such as a fire outbreak.

The fire safety drill during the simulation exercise proved the readiness of the bank to operate in its new structure.

Speaking after the exercise, Mr Samuel Kwame Boafo, Head of Human Resource at CalBank mentioned that from the inception of the construction of the head office, management of the bank had ensured that there was a collaboration between all the required state institutions including the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) and all other agencies.

He said as part of the safety and security protocols, the moment there was a fire outbreak and the alarm goes off, all the elevators will automatically go down.

He said the bank has trained and positioned fire marshals at designated points in the building to coordinate and assist staff and customers to move to safety in case of an emergency.

He also mentioned that the building has been certified by the GNFS.

The Division Officer Grade three of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), Mr Eric Smith addressing the staff after the simulation exercise however bemoaned the unavailability of enough turntable ladders to fight fire outbreaks on high rise buildings.

In the absence of such turntable ladders, Mr Smith recommended that owners of high rise buildings should provide balconies to help with rescue operations in the case of a fire outbreak.

He said at the moment, the GNFS has only three turntable ladders located at Kumasi, Tema and Accra and considering the rate at which high rise buildings are springing up, the service will need more. 

Simulation Exercise

Mr Smith urged the management of institutions to train their personnel on basic fire-fighting skills so as to be able to prevent the escalation of such fires when they occur.

On the simulation exercise at CalBank, Mr Smith expressed worry about the slow attitude some staff exhibited during the exercise and appealed to them to always move to the assembling point designated by the bank for safety.

He said the attitude of not responding swiftly to the fire alarm should be discouraged as one does not know when a disaster will strike.

According to him, an evacuation exercise such as what was witnessed during the simulation should take close to three minutes but it took longer than that.

Mr Smith urged management of the bank to continue to sensitise staff about the need to respect such warning signs for their safety.

He also urged staff to be each other’s keeper helping others to evacuate in situations such as this.

He mentioned that anytime there was a notification for a fire outbreak, a fire tender will immediately be dispatched first to control the initial problem before a Time Table ladder is ushered in when there is the need to evacuate staff trapped on higher floors of the building.