GNFS embarks on fire safety education in schools in Cape Coast

The Central Regional Command of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) has launched a Fire Safety Education campaign to step up fire safety awareness among students in the Region.

Dubbed “Catch Them Young Phase Two”, the campaign was on the theme “Fire Safety, the Role of Students and Teachers”.

The campaign, which is a continuation of a similar campaign undertaken in 2017, was aimed at educating school children on basic fire safety as well get them to familiarise themselves with the equipment and activities of the Service.

According to ADOI Abdul Wasiu Hudu, Regional Public Relations Officer of the GNFS, more than 48 basic schools and 3,000 pupils in the Cape Coast Metropolis were sensitised on basic fire safety practices in the first phase of the campaign.

He said the second phase, which had so far covered 11 of the 16 Senior High Schools (SHS) targeted in the Cape Coast Metropolis, would be later extended to all Schools in the Region.

Mr. Hudu explained that the GNFS had of late been proactive and moved away from the firefighting approach to fire safety and prevention, hence the focus on basic and SHS students to imbibe in the young ones safety consciousness for them to also serve as peer educators.

He said when fire starts, even if it is tackled at the incipient stage, one or two items will definitely be destroyed and therefore it must be prevented at all cost.

The Students and teachers who were taken through the chemistry of combustion, types of fires, causes and prevention as well as how to use extinguishers, commended the Service for the training.


They admitted being guilty to some of the dangerous practices of fire outbreaks and pledged to be more cautious now that they have the knowledge.

Some of the schools included Aggrey Memorial SHS, Ghana National College, Cape Coast Technical Institute, Efutu SHS and Cape Coast International among others.