By Emelia Nkrumah
Accra, June 23, GNA – The Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), together with the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and the Energy Commission, has embarked on a fire safety awareness at the Mallam-Atta and Kantamanto Markets, in Accra.
The exercise is to minimize the risk of fire-related incidents, protect lives and property, to respond appropriately in case of a fire emergency and create a prepared and informed community that could effectively respond to fire emergencies.
Touring the Kantamanto Market, the team realised increased illegal electricity connections, illegal reconnection, tampering or interfering with internal mechanisms of meters.
It also discovered that the market was congested as there was no means of escape in case of fire outbreak. There were also smaller-size cables and the overload of cables in terminal meters, among others.
At the Mallam-Atta market, it was discovered that there was improper wiring in the market and some of them were illegal, while some of them had encroached the ECG poles making it difficult for ECG to have access to their poles in case of emergency.
The team also noticed that most of the connections were without earth-wires, thus misconnections.
Mr Evans Osei Owusu, Greater Accra Regional Safety Officer of GNFS, said the exercise was due to the recent increase in fires at marketplaces in the country, saying, “we are being proactive to prevent and manage undesired fires in the area.”
Mr Owusu added that “we don’t want markets to burn for the government to spend on building new markets, as the monies can be used to create jobs for the youth.”
He urged the public to call the fire service emergency line 192 for a quick response in the event of a fire incident.
Mr Cyril Akushey, Safety Officer of ECG, Accra West Region, noted that leadership of the market have entrusted the wiring to unqualified wiring inspectors, making the wiring uncalled for.
“You realise that the electrician who did the wiring for the market does not know the essence of the earthing. The earthing is supposed to provide two essential rates that is to save personnel and equipment,” he said.
Mr Solomon Appiah, Wiring Inspector of Energy Commission, said the wiring at the markets were not up to the wiring standard, saying “it is very poor wiring.”
“We asked for the electrician and realised that he is not certified by the energy commission. So, we will plead with the market authorities to engage a certified wiring professional to take the electrical jobs in this market,” he added.
He, therefore, thanked the GNFS for the preventive exercise and appealed to the authorities in charge of the market to take immediate steps to do the correction as quickly as possible, adding that the “market is sitting on a time bound.”
Mrs Freda Lamptey, Regional Public Relations Officer (PRO), GNFS said wrong electrical installation had been the cause of most of the fire outbreaks in the various markets.
She said: “Over the years, our markets have suffered series of fire outbreaks, so we appeal to the authorities in the market in collaboration with GNFS, to come together to ensure that our markets are protected from these fire outbreaks to have a safe environment and peace of mind to work.”
Mr Alex King Nartey, National Public Relations, Department of GNFS, noted that market fires had been an unfortunate phenomenon affecting the nation, saying it was the mandate of the GNFS to be more preventative rather than “trying to correct.”
He said the segregation of items at the marketplace would help the service identify areas in case of an emergency. “When fires breaks, you can bear with us that accessibility is the problem, having proper segregation in the market will help reduce the rate of damages.”
Mr Edmund Tagoe, the Chief Technician Engineer of the Accra West District of the ECG said the activities of the traders about electrical connection was bad, cautioning them to desist from the act, and engage the services of licensed electricians to prevent outbreaks.
GNA