The Western Regional Fire Commander, Assistant Chief Fire Officer (ACF01) Frederick Ohemeng, has advised vehicle owners to buy fire extinguishers as an important gadget to protect their vehicles in the wake of fire outbreaks as part of the requirement of the law.
He said it was unfortunate that some drivers refused to acquire such important live-saving gadgets even, if we tell them to do so.
Speaking to the Ghanaian Times in an interview in Takoradi, ACFO 1 Ohemeng also urged residents to immediately call the Fire Service during fire outbreaks, and not allow the situation to go out of hand before calling them.
The GNFS, he said played a major role in promoting Ghana’s economic prosperity and investment drive, and had made sacrifices to save life and property, thus making society safer.
ACFO1 Ohemeng explained that, the GNFS, as part of its mandates, ensured that investors acquired a “clean bill of health” to operate in Ghana.
He declared “Every year, we protect life and property. What we do is that, any company that comes to this country, if we don’t give you a clean bill of health in terms of fire safety, you can’t operate. No investor will come with his hard earned currency, equipment and machinery, when there’s no proper safety fire cover.”
The fire commander recalled that, Ghanaian fire fighters had played yeoman roles in salvaging a market in Lome, Togo and also helped rebuild the fire services in both Cote d’Ivoire and Liberia, after they were devastated by civil wars.
ACFO 1 Ohemeng “Indeed, our sacrifices are significant to the economy, and you know, we don’t go on strike, if so, that’s when you’ll see the magnitude of disasters that will befall this nation.
What we do is first to stop the fire from spreading, some property will be consumed, but, we do our best to stop it from spreading.”
“That’s why sometimes we quantify this sacrifice in monetary terms, but, we have been doing so much for this country because if we don’t, everything will go with the fire. We have also been protecting the country’s forest cover and even the cocoa growing areas. We also have fire volunteers who operate in these areas all over the country.”
He commended the government for shouldering the responsibility of providing equipment for the service besides paying the salaries of about 10,000 personnel, noting “our dependents also benefit.”
ACFO1 Ohemeng appealed to other institutions and benevolent organisations and corporate bodies to assist the GNFS with fire-tenders for them to serve their communities better.
He indicated that government of Ghana paid insurance for officers who got involved in accidents or died in line of duty, but, added that, personnel had also been advised to take other insurance policies.
FROM CLEMENT ADZEI BOYE, FIJAI
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