Barely two weeks into 2013, 265 fire disasters have been recorded in the country, according to the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS). This means about 18 fires occur a day and almost one every hour. The fire outbreaks have claimed three lives and injured two others. During the first week of the year, there were 166 fire outbreaks in the country. The latest outbreaks are the fires that gutted the BBC Industrial Company in Tema, ECOMOG, a slum near the Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra, and another in Kumasi on Saturday. During the first week of the year, the Ashanti Region recorded the highest number of 52 fire outbreaks, with the Volta, Upper East and Upper West regions recording the least, one each. According to statistics from the GNFS made available to the Daily Graphic, the Central Region had 10; Western, seven; Brong Ahafo, 28; Eastern, 10; Northern, 2; and Greater Accra, 51.
The GNFS categorises the outbreaks under domestic, vehicular, electrical, commercial and industrial. Under those categories, domestic fires recorded the highest, with 18 of them in the Greater Accra Region, 20 in Ashanti, six in Central, four in Western and nine in Brong Ahafo. The rest are the Volta Region one; Northern, two; Upper East, one, and Western, seven. Under vehicular fires, Greater Accra Region had three, Ashanti, Central, Brong Ahafo, and Eastern had two, one, five and one, respectively. For electrical fires, Greater Accra had seven, while Ashaiman and Central had one each. In the bush fire category, Ashanti recorded 12; Greater Accra, six; Brong Ahafo nine; while Central and Eastern had one each. For commercial fires, the Ashanti Region led with 12; Greater Accra, seven; Brong Ahafo, four, while Central, Western and Upper East had one each.
The fire disasters include the gutting of the MTN Warehouse on the Spintex Road in Accra and the four others that occurred at the Suame Magazine in Kumasi, BBC Industries in Tema, ECOMOG in Accra and five shops in Tarkwa. The fires not only destroyed properties worth millions of Ghana cedis but also rendered many people homeless. The GNFS attributed the current spate of fire outbreaks to the non-observance of basic fire safety measures. The National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) is worried about the upsurge in the fire disasters, since sensitisation programmes have been carried out on the adoption of fire safety measures.
- RSOE EDIS
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