Fire outbreak has over the years been a canker in society and a threat to lives and properties in the country at large.
The Ghana National Fire Service has the core function of educating the people on fire safety and sustaining it.
This education is periodically done in schools, marketplaces and on the various social media platforms.
Speaking in an interview with Beach FM on the Western Echo program, ADO II Afua Pongo, Duty Public Relations officers, GNFS, Western Command Sekondi, says fire prevention is a two-way affair and a shared responsibility between the GNFS and the public.
According to her, Ghanaians should put a premium on fire safety just as they do with security. She continued to say that, people should develop an interest in fire safety and prevention so that the fire prevention responsibility won’t all be on the GNFS but first aid fire control can be done before the GNFS arrives to help curtail worsened fire outbreaks.
” The Ghana National Fire Service has realised the main reason why the populace doesn’t appreciate our efforts is that they don’t think they have a role to play. They think it’s all balled on GNFS. It’s GNFS’s responsibility to prevent fire.
Our vision is to go out there to prevent and manage out fires and our function also is to go and educate and the course of education should be sustained which shouldn’t be a one-day affair. Fire safety or prevention, is a two-way affair or a shared responsibility as the function says that we should go and create awareness and sustain it., ” She said.
The other aspect also beholds on the individual to have that interest to premium on fire safety, they make it a last choice and if you make it last, get to know that at the day, when the undesirable fire visits you, everything you have to put in place will come last. GNFS would like to appeal to the general public that if you use electricity and LPG, know that you are prone to fire. It has also come to our realization that people place much interest in security.,” ADO Pongo added.
Afua Pongo also provided essential guidance on what individuals should do to ensure fire safety both at workplaces and in their homes in the event of a fire outbreak.
She further urged the public to incorporate fire safety considerations into all aspects of their lives, with the aim of reducing the prevalence of fire incidents in communities.
ADO Pongo stated ” We raised a ban at the market that anyone who cooks with LPG will be banned from the market. But we later held a stakeholders meeting to permit them to only use charcoal to cook at the market due to the commercial food vendors.
Even with that, we instructed them to not cook after 5 p.m. and also report to the police station at the marketplace whenever they close. We also set up a committee that goes around to make sure no one uses LPG and whoever is caught using LPG to cook at the market will be banished.
We also asked them to get fired extinguisher which must be renewed when it expires and also learn how to use them effectively as a first aid appliance after the GNFS has been called to come.”
Story by Bernice Mensah
