By Regina Benneh
Fiapre (B/R), Aug. 28, GNA – Assistant Chief Fire Officer I (ACFOI) Olivia Ayem, the Bono Regional Commander of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) has expressed worry about attacks by the public on personnel while attending to fire incidents.
She cited a recent incident at Chiraa in the Sunyani West Municipality when fire personnel in attending to a fire outbreak incident were attacked by the people on arrival at the scene for allegedly delaying responding to the call.
ACFO Ayem an interview with the media, said it had never been the intention of fire personnel to arrive late at the scene of fire outbreaks when under the circumstance the public’s properties could burn and even lead to loss of lives.
The interview was after a fire outbreak simulation exercise by the Service at the Ghana Education Trust Fund hostel of the University of Energy and Natural Resources at Fiapre, near Sunyani.
The exercise was done to demonstrate the Service’s ability in rescuing people from storey buildings in the event of fire incidents as part of its 60 years anniversary celebration and an awareness creation campaign.
The Fire Office explained the cause of the perceived delays could be attributed to the unmotorable nature of some of the roads and thus posed difficulty for the fire vehicles to arrive at the scenes of fire outbreaks with the required amount of speed.
Sometimes the unauthorised location of metal containers and wooden kiosks for business purposes by private individuals in some areas also become hindrance for the vehicles to have easy access to the scenes of fire outbreaks, ACFOI Ayem added.
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She appealed to the Metropolitan/Municipal and District Assemblies and financially capable individuals to assist for the construction of fire posts and fire stations in designated communities so that fire personnel might not have to travel long distances in attending to fire outbreak incidents.
In another interview, Mr Eric Mills, an Advanced Engineering Medical Technician of the Ghana Ambulance Service appealed to the public to always pave way for ambulances whenever they heard the tooting of the horns since it might be that somebody’s life was at stake and needed to reach the hospital on time to be saved
GNA