Implement recommendations of fire audits : Chief Fire Officer

The Chief Fire Officer, Dr Albert Brown Gaisie, has called for the implementation of the recommendations of periodic fire audits conducted on public places, such as major markets by the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) to forestall the reoccurrence of fires leading to loss of property and cash.

He explained that it was the responsibility of all stakeholders to help ensure that public and private places were protected from fires and also save the nation the resources that went up in flames, as well as what was used to rebuild such places.

Dr Gaisie made the call at the scene of last Thursday’s fire at the Kumasi Central market that wiped out over 300 shops.

Surprisingly, it took Dr Gaisie and his entourage over 10 minutes from the main road to the fire scene, a distance of about 50 metres, due to the congestion in the market and he wondered about the number of lives that would have been lost if the inferno had occurred during the day.

Fire audits
Fire audits include fire risk assessment, action plans related to any significant findings of the fire risk assessment, emergency plans for the premises (what to do in the event of a fire), records of staff training and fire drills, and records of testing and maintenance of firefighting equipment (e.g. extinguishers).

Dr Gaisie expressed grave concern about the increasing rate of lawlessness among some sections of Ghanaians who would not heed any rule or regulations by statutory organisations and would want to always have their way.

He urged Ghanaians who had invested and put up property, factories and other investments to take personal initiative to secure their property from fire.

Fire education
He noted that just before the Yuletide, his men embarked on a nationwide education, taking people through the dos and don’ts about fire and the need to quickly inform the personnel of the Ghana National Fire Service of fires.

Dr Gaisie, who used to be the Ashanti Regional Fire Commander from 1997 to 2001, expressed worry about the rate at which the Central Market went up in flames at regular intervals and cautioned the women to be wary of the use of fires and electrical gadgets.

He paid tribute to the fire officers for the manner in which they fought the fires, which he termed as Class B fires which were very dangerous because they included mixtures of very dangerous things like shea butter, cooking oils, gas cylinders and other highly inflammable items.

Rebuilding
Hours after the firemen had left the scene last Thursday, the women who had been shedding tears because they had lost everything started brisk reconstruction of their markets. Carpenters and masons had set up at the site of the fires and were busily working.