Fire Outbreaks on the Rise in Ghana

As Ghana is currently facing an intense energy crisis, fire outbreaks across the country have increased significantly beginning this year. The Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) has said that 1, 539 fire outbreaks have been recorded in the first quarter of the year across the country. Ghana’s Chief Fire Officer, Dr Albert Brown Gaisie said the figures are alarming especially as 552 fire outbreaks have recorded this year alone in the capital region, the Greater Accra. The Ashanti Region which became the epicenter of fire outbreaks last year in the country came second with 397 fire outbreaks followed by the Central Region with 159.

Dr Gaisie attributed the outbreaks to the Hammattan season at the beginning of the year and other human activities that could have avoided these fires. At a stakeholders’ meeting aimed at engaging various stakeholders in dialogue sessions to formulate strategies to strengthen fire management measures to prevent fire outbreaks, Dr Gaisie underscored the need for the public to take precaution especially during this Easter season. The chief fire officer also encouraged the various stakeholders managing the country’s cities to harmonize their programmes so as to ensure effective coordination among their respective institution to be able to avert fire disasters in the country.

He also said the GNFS had observed the construction of high rise buildings in the various cities across the country and urged the owners of those buildings to make provisions for emergency exits in case of any fire outbreaks and other incidents, calling on developers to make it easier for the GNFS to facilitate evacuation and rescue in the case of emergency. “It is the responsibility of the fire service to evacuate people from a building but without these exits, our work will be made very difficult,” he said. The GNFS also disclosed that it is currently conducting a safety audit exercise at some institutions and government ministries and departments to ensure that they had adequate fire safety measures put in place to prevent future fire outbreaks.

Last year, majority of the fire outbreaks happened at the various markets in the country. Records have shown that markets in Ghana are the most hit in fire outbreaks. The fire problem has therefore become a major problem for the managers of the markets. Goods and structures have been destroyed in the past with the cost running into thousands of Cedis. It is being speculated that the fire outbreaks start from varied sources, that is, they may start as a result of an unattended iron, coal pot fire not turned out to wielders forgetting to turn off their wielding torches.

The problem is always compounded because of congestion. Every major market in Ghana faces the problem of congestion. Due to this, fire hydrants have been obscured by stalls; lanes that fire trucks could use to access the market are converted into stores. All these come together to cause the kind of destruction that occurs during such outbreaks of fires.