Institute measures to forestall fire outbreaks - GNFS implores ECG
The Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) has implored the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to institute effective measures to forestall the rampant fire outbreaks at its facilities.
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According to the GNFS, the continuous destruction of the ECG’s facilities, such as the burning of electric poles and transformers, was a drain on material resources.
The Public Relation Officer of the GNFS, Divisional Officer (DO II) Timothy Osafo-Affum, who was addressing the media in Accra on Monday therefore urged the electricity company to create fire belts around its electrical poles and also apply flame retardants to the poles. He was briefing the media on the state of fire outbreaks in the country.
“There has been a significant shift from domestic-related electrical fires as 70 out of the 145 fires in that category in the first quarter of 2016 involved properties of ECG, ranging from electric poles, high tension poles and transformers. This situation is a drain on the GNFS in terms of logistics,” he further indicated.
Fire outbreaks
Mr Osafo-Affum also revealed that a total of 2,469 fire outbreaks were recorded in the first quarter of 2016 as against 2,036 during the same period in 2015.
The increase in the 2016 figure by an estimated 21 per cent was attributed to factors such as faulty electrical appliances, placing combustible materials closer to sources of heat, misuse of equipment and toying with lighters.
The PRO further indicated that his outfit had revoked the fire permit of Lucky Oil, a fuel station under construction near Pambros at Weija in Accra.
“That facility was given a fire permit based on the fire engineering drawing submitted to the Chief Fire Officer (CFO) for review in 2012. An inspection was done three weeks ago by a team of officers which revealed that Lucky Oil has varied the construction requirements contrary to regulation 14 of Legislative Instrument (LI) 1724,” he said.
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