Fire Service emergency phone line disconnected

The efficiency of the country's emergency telephone lines was put to test on Tuesday when the Central Medical Stores (CMS) at Tema, the main depot for drugs and medical equipment for the Ministry of Health caught fire.

Mr James K. Sabblah, Head of the CMS said the workers acted fast by using carbon dioxide (CO2) fire extinguishers as the first line of attack against fire but attempts to reach the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) on its direct emergency telephone line "192" failed.

This was because the "192" line had been disconnected while there was no response from 999, which goes to Ghana Telecom before the required emergency service is informed.

When GNA dialled '192', the computerised response was "the telephone number you have called has been temporarily put out of service". A lady, however, answered the '999' and said no such call came through.

Mr Francis Gyenyin, Tema Municipal Fire Officer, told journalists that Ghana Telecom (GT) said it disconnected the '192' line because children had been playing with the number.

He said the GNFS had sent a number of letters to GT to restore the line but to no avail.