General News of Thursday, 13 July 2017
Source: www.ghanaweb.com
The Chief Fire Officer of the Ghana National Fire Service has noted with grave concern the over dependence on the fire service regarding fire safety.
Albert Brown Gaisie expressed disappointment at the fact that people neglect basic safety measures and thus fail to protect themselves adequately to forestall any fire disaster.
He insisted that if people took upon themselves the responsibility to ensure the highest fire safety measures, there will be very few cases of fire outbreaks.
He stressed “all of us have the responsibility to address these issues which seems to be potential ignition sources for fire outbreak. It is not only the fire service that must address these issues because at the end of the day if we educate you and you don’t accept the education, what happens. At times one finds it wondering that you or an institution would have to plead and beg somebody who owns his own investment to ensure his safety”
He stressed that improper positioning of cylinders in homes, overloaded extension cables, poor wiring, exposed cables and cables placed under carpets were some of the common errors made.
He also pointed out congestion in rooms, lack of emergency exit doors, improperly placed extinguishers, and the use of candles as very dangerous but most neglected fire safety measures.
He cautioned vehicle owners not to compromise the repair of their vehicles when they faulty emphasising that there has been an increase in vehicular fires in recent times.
He suggested that vehicle owners should contact the appropriate mechanics and electrical engineers to properly fix the fault of the vehicle.
He also advised institutions to hire the services of fire safety wardens who will be in-charge of ensuring that all fire safety measures are adhered to at every point in time.
“We have for some time now also recorded a high increase of vehicular fires and what we need to advise is that, owners of vehicles apart from owning a fire extinguisher must also look at the maintenance culture system. Our investigations have proved that most vehicle owners send their vehicles to mechanics that are not qualified to handle these vehicles especially vehicles that are using gas. You have struggled for your investment and you want somebody to beg you to keep them safe? That is amazing” he fumed.
Chief Fire Officer established that after a fire safety audit of more than 1800 institutions between 2015 and 2017, most of the media organisations failed to meet the fire safety requirements.
He disclosed that some of the staff of the about 80 media institutions visited didn’t know what the fire service emergency numbers were and basic evacuation steps.
He stated that the fire service will put in measures to address these challenges and also give the institutions ample time to comply with the fire safety standards.
Failure to do so he insists will incur the wrath of the Fire Service. A.B. Gaisie expressed these known at the quarterly press briefing of the Ghana National Fire Service at the fire service headquarters Most media outlets guilty of non-compliance to fire safety measures - Chief Fire Officer
The Chief Fire Officer, Albert Brown Gaisie, has disclosed that most media houses in the country fail to meet the basic safety requirement per the fire safety standards.
He noted that many of these media institutions are prone to fire outbreaks and workers are at risk of losing their lives as a result. He stated that these were the observations made after the Ghana National Fire Service conducted a fire safety audit in 83 media houses. The fire safety audit he noted, was conducted on MDAs and Media institutions.