A total of 127 lives had been lost to fire in the Brong-Ahafo Region in five years - 2011 - 2016.

Assistant Chief Fire Officer (ACFO) Tonny Gomez, the Regional Fire Officer, who announced this said property, costing about GHC22,011,322.11 was also destroyed.

He was speaking at the launch of Regional Home Fire Safety Certification (HFSC) Project and the 2016/2017 bush fire prevention campaign in Sunyani.

This ties in with the nationwide effort to inform and educate the population on the need to adopt and put in place fire safety measures - sensitize homeowners and individuals to procure firefighting equipment and early fire prevention devices to reduce fire emergencies.

“Ensuring effective home fire certification and practices” was the theme chosen for the event.

ACFO Gomez indicated that domestic fire incidents had kept growing in the region and urged everybody to heed safety education.

He called for all to acquire fire extinguishers for their homes and work places to enable them to prevent any fire outbreak from spreading before the arrival of firefighters.

The HFSC project dubbed ‘DUMGYA Project’ is being implemented by the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) in collaboration with Tiberias Ghana Limited, an Accra-based fire safety and prevention company, which is providing logistics for the sensitization aspect of the project.

The project is assisting to train and equip firefighters with appropriate technology to conduct inspection, review drawings and certify premises as required by Legislative Instrument (LI) 1724.