Chief Fire Officer Spills beans

Albert Brown Gaisie, Acting Chief Fire Officer.

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Friday January 21, 2011
The inability of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) to respond to emergency situations especially fire outbreaks is mostly due to the uncooperative attitude of the utility service providers.

According to the Acting Chief Fire Officer, Albert Brown Gaisie the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) and Electricity Corporation of Ghana will have to “deepen their commitment” if fire outbreaks and other emergency situations are to be tackled effectively and swiftly.

At a forum at the GNFS Headquarters in Accra yesterday to discuss the factors impeding emergency response delivery and strengthen collaboration among stakeholders, the Fire boss said “we are committed to mounting swift emergency response but if our collaborators are do not step up their efforts it becomes difficult for the country.”

Interestingly, the GNFS confirmed that it invited the utility service providers to be part of the forum but none of them sent a representative.

Mr. Gaisie said 114 out of the 302 fire hydrants within the Accra –Tema area alone are unserviceable and said it has restricted their effort to respond to emergency situations swiftly.

“People have built on hydrants while others have destroyed it. Even in places where water can be found the pressure is sometime very low, making our men struggle so much to draw water to fight fires.”

He dispelled rumours that some personnel of the service trade the water meant for fire firefighting saying “there may be miscreants among us but we do not condone such acts. We always initiate action against any personnel who brings the name of the service into disrepute.”

“It is not our intention to apportion blame but if other agencies do not collaborate effectively it brings serious operational problems for us. We are emphasizing collaboration because anytime there is fire outbreak and we do not respond on time the public tend to blame us.”

Turning to the ECG, the Fire boss said “we have had problems with transformer fires, overhead and underground cables as well as power isolation in times of emergency.”

He said there have been several instances when fire fighters got stranded at fire scenes because the ECG had not been able to switch off power saying “no organization should suffer because of the inefficiencies of others.”

Mr. Gaisie also said the service needs the intervention of various District Assemblies to be able to enforce fire safety laws and impressed on the assemblies to make sure the country’s markets have the necessary measures to prevent fire outbreaks.

“We cannot take certain actions without recourse to our partners like the GWCL, ECG and the assemblies.”

He also called on the telecommunication service providers to assist the service with improved communication equipment saying “you should help the public to have easy access to us by providing better service in times of emergency.”

He said whilst ensuring personal safety and security the public should not mount barricades that makes it impossible for personnel to reach them anytime there is fire outbreak saying “people should not fortify themselves so that anytime there is disaster they can have easy exit.”

He said the equipment for fighting fire may not be adequate but the government is trying its best to procure more for them and added “we are currently repairing a lot of our tenders and other vehicles to step up our operations.”

The Fire chief was not happy about the lack of adherence to basic fire safety rules by the industrial sector which he said was the result of frequent fire outbreaks especially in industrial areas and said they sometimes keep flammable chemicals is stores where there are no ventilation.

He said the service is working a out a strategy to ensure that fire safety law are strictly enforce and would seek the assistance of the Attorney-General and the police to arrest and prosecute factory owners and others who refuse to adhere to safety rules.

Recently in Oda in the Eastern region firemen were ridiculed when they seen using buckets to fight fire.

Six container shops at the Oda Market in the Birim Central Municipal Assembly, were engulfed in flames, destroying property estimated at GH¢60,000.

Personnel of the Fire Service used buckets and other small containers to fight the inferno, due to lack of fire tenders, causing amusement among onlookers.

The Birim Wood Complex Limited provided water tankers to the GNFS before the fire was brought under control.

Assistant Divisional Fire Officer Ransford Ababio, in charge of the municipality told the Ghana News Agency that the fire at the market followed another disaster at the Finance Block of the assembly at about 0500 hours on January 13, when the building went up in flames destroying a number of items.

He said the cause of disasters were under investigations.
Isaac Kwasi Boadu, owner of an agro-chemical shop that was affected by the fire said he had lost all his goods.