Kingsley Mamore
Dambai (O/R), Dec. 13, GNA – Krachi East Municipal Fire Commander, Assistant Divisional Officer 1, Victor Kodzo Kudoadzi has urged the public to be good neighbours by reporting suspicious activity of people engaging in indiscriminate bush burning ahead of this Christmas festivity.
In an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), he said indiscriminate bush burning is often prevented when citizens report suspected illegal activity to authorities.
He told the GNA that his outfit sought to prevent and manage undesired fires, which includes, electrical, domestic, bush, rescue accident and other related activities incidental to the vision of the Ghana National Fire Service in the Municipality.
Mr Kudoadzi said, fire situation in the Municipality was not alarming taking into consideration its trend of occurrence in the last two years, which resulted in over 90 per cent fire coverage of the Municipality with it prompt response and strict fire safety proactive measures.
In 2021, the GNFS responded to few bush, electrical and domestic fires, a cause that has been widely attributed to intensive and massive general pragmatic bushfire campaign programmes being put in place.
He again said, fire safety education and risk assessment in Banks, Municipal Offices, Regional Coordinating Council Premises, Residency, Markets, Schools, and other facilities across the Municipality had totally yielded positive results.
He stressed that bushfire had been a canker that eats into the fabric of peasant Farmers due to carelessness on the part of palm wine tappers, hunting for games, activities of Fulani herdsmen, charcoal producers, burning of crop residue, cigarette smokers.
He said going into the year 2023, the Commander and staff of GNFS would enforce bushfire Law LI229 of Act 1990 to the latter.
The fire volunteer squads in the rural communities, work places, market volunteers would be empowered to intensify their activities.
He said Fire Certification and Risk Assessment of structures and premises would be intensified to ensure that the entire national private and public installations wre very safe enough to guarantee appealing assurance to investigators.
Robust fire safety and other related education activities would be sensitized at all the institutions and spheres of human habitation to change the mindset of a section of public who ignorantly violate safety regulations.
He advised farmer groups to create fire belts around their farms wide enough and control burning of the weeded portion after 4-5 days after weeding.
He appealed with Chiefs, Traditional Rulers, Religious bodies, Stakeholders, and the public not to leave the fight against this menace for fire service alone since it is a shared responsibility of all.
GNA