Chief Fire Officer calls for collaboration between fire fighting units

The Chief Fire Officer of the Ghana National Fire Service, Dr Albert Brown Gaisie, has called for a collaborative effort between fire fighting units in the country to ensure effective and efficient management of future emergencies or disasters.

He said: “fire fighting is very expensive that is why we need to come together to standardised our equipment to ensure effective and efficient use of our resources”.

Dr Brown Gaisie made the call when he met the Heads of institutional Fire Service Unit to deliberate on issues regarding effective fire management in the country.

Section two of sub section two of Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) Act, Act 537 (1997), mandated the Chief Fire Officer to assume command of any fire fighting institution in country during national disaster or emergency.

The Chief Fire Officer said as indicated in the act, the GNFS has the commanding authority related to matters of fires rescue in the country but it could not do that in isolation as there were lot of fire fighting units in the country.

He said the matter of emergency response did not lie with only one unit and called for collaboration towards management of disasters and the need to support each other in times of emergency.

“There is the need for collaborative efforts in the area of education to create the awareness on fire precaution and prevention to reduce the incidence among the populace,” he said.

Dr Brown-Gaisie called for strategies to support each other to deal with the situation as and when the incidence occurs and the unified command response must be under the leadership of the Chief Fire Officer.

“We need to sit down and come out with strategies, look at our system command strategic level, tactical and operational levels to ensure judicious use of resources.

He said there were so many hazards fire fighters were confronted with and those in aviation must have some knowledge about marine fire fighting in times of emergency.

This he explained will help when there is an emergency and one need to request for support.

“When it comes to redeployment and management of resources we need to synchronise our efforts to reduce the occurrence of fire out breaks in terms of operational management,” he added.

He advised the public to avoid giving counter instructions during emergencies or national disasters since such acts always worsen the problem.

“We need to synchronise our strategic operational and tactical emergency response regarding fire and rescue in the country. So effective command and control should be identified as one of the challenges to deal with when it comes to fire fighting.

“Standardisation of equipment must capture our tactical and operational plans to assist the people when it comes to prevention, precaution and management of fire outbreak in the country,” he added.

Dr Brown-Gaisie also called for regular table top fire exercises, regular fire inspections and “we will not wait for disasters to strike before we start to look for the solution.

“We should be thinking of incidence stabilisation and property conservation and develop hotlines so that they would not find it difficult to link up with sister fire units in times of disaster or emergency, “he added.

He announced that before the end of the year, the GNFS would have a stimulation exercise to involve all fire fighting units in the country to test their preparedness for future emergencies.

He also emphasised the need to be holding quarterly meetings to discuss professional issues as they emerge, adding, “Fire fighting is not exclusive responsibility for only GNFS, it is appropriate to preserve the sanctity of the profession”.