Koforidua, May 24, GNA - Brigadier-General John Bosco Guyiri, the Acting Chief Fire Officer, has said the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) was committed to fire prevention rather than offering emergency response to fire outbreaks.

He said the Service was committed to reducing fire outbreaks in homes, organizations, farms and in vehicles.

He said the Service was undergoing changes in the prevention of fire and were focusing on raising public awareness through fire safety education. Brig. Gen. Guyiri was speaking at the opening of a five-day training programme for Regional Fire Safety Inspectors in Koforidua.

"The Fire Service intends to vigorously develop a culture of prevention within the communities; to assist in achieving this aim, we intend to focus on the use of Fire Safety Officers in our stations throughout the country to ensure direct contact and fuller understanding of local issues" he said.

Brig. Gen. Guyiri said the developing trend in the construction industry required a new orientation to safety practices to cope with the numerous high-rise buildings in the country and that training could keep Safety Officers abreast with changing needs of time.

He said the oil industry would expose the Service to new challenges and that it was necessary that Officers acquired the requisite skills to be able to manage the sector.

Divisional Officer Grade One (DO1) Bartholomew Kofi Nketsiah, the Eastern Regional Commander of the GNFS, said the region had a very vibrant Safety Department which had for the past five months, educated about 2,000 households in the New Juaben Municipality on fire prevention.

He said his outfit had trained over 4,000 Fire Volunteers in the region to heighten awareness on the effects of bushfires.

Mr Ebenezer Okletey Terlabi, the Deputy Eastern Regional Minister, expressed worry about fires in homes, workplaces, farms and roads, saying, fire safety issues were a shared responsibility by all and that everyone had a role to play to ensure that fire outbreaks reduced to the barest minimum.