By Lawrencia Akoto Frempong
Kpone, Sept. 10, GNA – Some residents of Shanghai, a suburb of Kpone within the Kpone-Katamanso municipality, have expressed displeasure about the unavailability of a fire station within the municipal capital.
The concerned residents expressed their misgivings in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), following a fire outbreak which consumed parts of a pub in the area.
They noted that because of the lack of a fire station in the town, there was always a delayed response to an emergency, as they had to rely on tenders from Tema or Devtraco.
Giving a witness account on the fire incident, they said they suspected a leakage from a gas cylinder in the pub which exploded, explaining that while they waited for the arrival of firefighters, the residents managed to prevent the fire from spreading to other structures.
Assistant Divisional Officer II (ADOII) Alfred Atampugre, the Officer in charge of the Devtraco Fire Station, told the GNA that his outfit received the call at about 18:03 hours on Monday evening and dispatched officers from the station at about 18:04 hours to the scene.
ADOII Atampugre explained that due to vehicular traffic along the Tema-Aflao highway, the firefighters arrived at about 18:30 hours and were able to put the fire under control at about 19:20 hours.
He stated that the cause of the fire was yet to be known, and no injury or death was recorded.
He lauded the residents for aiding in controlling the fire while awaiting the arrival of the firefighters and urged them to be cautious when dealing with fire-related incidents.
Mr Abraham Nartey Tettey, the Municipal Director of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), said most of the people in the community did not take fire safety precautions seriously, especially food vendors who did not have any safety measures to protect themselves.
Mr Tettey said NADMO had put measures in place to intensify the sensitisation and education on fire safety and precautions within the community, through the various religious organisations and various institutions to prevent fire outbreaks.
He said the sensitisation would be the enforcement of laws to ensure that every household, workplace and public institution had fire extinguishers, to help minimise the risks of fires within the municipality.
Mr Samuel T.K. Morton, the Kpone-Katamanso Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), cited the heavy traffic situation often on that stretch of the road as a major challenge hindering the prompt response to fire tenders during such emergencies in the area.
Mr Morton admitted that although there were a number of fire service stations within the municipality, the Kpone enclave did not have a fire station, which usually caused delays in fighting fire outbreaks in the town.
He said the assembly had been able to secure land, purposely for a fire station, and therefore called on the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) and the government of Ghana for the needed assistance in constructing a fire station within the Kpone community.
The MCE stressed the need for the community to stop building their structures on water hydrants, announcing that the Assembly would be taking actions to quickly evacuate all those who had built structures on hydrants, to provide easy access to water during emergencies.
GNA
Edited by Laudia Sawer/Christabel Addo