The Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) says it will sanction facilities or companies that failed to comply with fire safety requirements.

Mr Doi Michael Ato Korsah, Assistant Director of Safety at the GNFS in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, said the Service had trained over 100 fire inspectors to access public facilities at random to find out compliance with safety standards and that defaulters would be sanctioned.

He said the target was to ensure that all public places in the country, especially banks educational institutions, entertainment, and recreational centres were secured against fire.

“We are making sure that we have a total coverage of every designated premises all over the country and with this, we are covering sector by sector such as the banking sector, education sector, entertainment, and recreational areas and so on,” Mr Korsah said.

He added that the GNFS had been able to certify 12,410 facilities with fire safety certificates across the country, of which fresh companies who applied for fire certificates constituted 2,918 with 9,492 applying for renewal of fire certificates.

Mr Korsah said the renewal and application for the certificates were to ensure that the safety at the facilities was up to the required standards, adding, “during the renewal of fire safety, investigations were done in the facilities and when infractions of safety protocols are detected, the Service ensures their ratifications.”

He said the Service had intensified the training and education of the citizenry on fire safety to reduce fire disasters in the country.

Mr Korsah said the GNFS was engaging the Ghana Education Service (GES) to educate and train students in various educational institutions on fire safety measures and to train fire cadets to serve as front liners in the event of fire outbreaks in schools.

Mr Korsah advised the populace to be safety conscious in the use of electrical gadgets, and gas-cylinders to prevent domestic fire incidents.

He also reiterated the call on commercial drivers to fuel their vehicles before loading passengers because it was dangerous to take loaded vehicles with passengers to filling stations.

Mr Korsa said that was because micro sparks emanating from the taping of mobile phones by the users could trigger fire at the filling stations.