Brong-Ahafo Records Reduction in Fire Cases

The Brong-Ahafo Region in 2017 had 37 per cent reduction in total cases of fire outbreaks as compared to the previous year.

Assistant Chief Fire Officer (ACFO) James Owusu-Adjei, the Regional Commander of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) disclosed this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Sunyani.

He said in 2017, the region recorded 405 fire incidents with no death but it was 643 in 2016 with five lives lost.

ACFO Owusu-Adjei stated that domestic cases always led in the yearly fire cases and therefore needed to be curtailed to save lives and property.

He said domestic cases had the highest of 148, bushfires, 124 vehicle fires, 54, commercial fires, 28, electrical fires, 19, institutional fires, 14, industrial fires, 10 and other fire cases 23.

ACFO Owusu-Adjei mentioned that items destroyed were estimated at GHC1, 690,168 as against GHC3, 445,030.5 in 2016.

He observed that the region had a reduction due to the rigorous education on fire safety issues and causes of fire outbreaks by the officers in the Service and the task forces at market places, bus stations, churches, schools and in individual houses.

ACFO Owusu-Adjei urged the public to install fire alarms in their offices and homes to alert people, especially in the night when there is fire outbreak to save lives and property.

He entreated the public to weed and clean their surroundings to protect their houses from fire outbreaks.

ACFO Owusu-Adjei advised farmers who want to burn weeds for early farming to engage the Service for assistance, adding that the task forces are roaming around farms and houses to check and prevent people from setting indiscriminate fires during the dry season.

He appealed to residents to assist the Service to maintain the progress made in fire prevention last year to ensure that the menace of fire outbreaks would be reduced drastically in the region.

ACFO Owusu-Adjei appealed to the people to replace their faulty electrical plugs and sockets and also desist from over-loading the sockets as that mostly contributed to domestic fire outbreaks.

Source: GNA