When will the fire disasters end?

 Fire disasters are gradu­ally becoming an almost normal event in this country. The aftermath of these fire disasters, bring economic hardships to peo­ple whose properties have been ravaged, emotional traumas and negative life changing experiences.

There are two main types of fire disasters, those that affect individual homes and those which affect a large group of people like market fires, school dormitories etc. The picture of a man who was weeping uncontrolla­bly after his wife and three children got burnt in a fire disaster which struck his house, will never leave my memory.

The trauma that this individual will experience is so severe that it has the potential to permanently affect his mental health. It is something that any person with an iota of humanity will not wish upon his or her worst enemy.

The Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) have report­ed that there were 6436 fire incidents in 2024 which was about 7.7 per cent more than what was recorded in 2023. If this was a GDP percentage growth figure, it would have been good news but this is incidents of fire and therefore very bad news. This year alone, there has been at least two major fire disasters, one at Kanta­manto and the recent one at Adum Blue Light area.

TV reports showing wailing women, traders whose live­lihood had been destroyed by the devastating fire, was heart wrenching. The question then is, what are the steps or measures being put in place to prevent this incidents from recurring? Given the quality and calibre of personnel in the GNFS, it beats my imagination why such market fires cannot be prevented or if they occur, are not readily dealt with to prevent them getting out of control.

The GNFS conducts in­vestigation into every fire disaster in this country. It can therefore be safely concluded that, they have identified the major causes of these fire outbreaks and there must be measures, to prevent their recurrence. It is therefore unacceptable to see that a fire breaks out and it cannot be contained fast enough, to prevent it from spreading out of con­trol.

The problem in this coun­try is that, we are quick to set up committees to investigate issues but little or nothing is done regarding implementation of the find­ings or recommendations. A certain attitudinal change is required to ensure a perma­nent solution for these fire disasters.

If markets are created without proper accesses such that, fire tenders will have easy access to all parts of the markets, not much can be done in the event of a fire outbreak. One of the major issues which accord­ing to the PRO of the GNFS, prevented them from quickly attacking the fire, was a lack of access into the market.

One important thing we have to pay attention to is a complaint from the fire men regarding access to hydrant points. The GNFS has re­ported on several occasions, a lack of access to hydrant points as a result of delib­erate building of structures over them. These issues have to be addressed so that fire disasters could be pre­vented. The fire equipment required by the GNFS must be paid attention to.

The infrastructure that ex­isted some 20 years ago are different from what exists now. Fire tenders with lad­ders which were adequate for firefighting, are now not fit for purpose because we now have very tall structures in cities like Accra.

The GNFS must be fully and appropriately resourced. Let the powers that be, pri­oritise fire prevention in this country to prevent painful experiences. God bless.

NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO INTERNATION­AL AIRPORT’

By Laud-Kissi-Mensah