Fire outbreaks decrease in UWR

The total number of fire outbreaks recorded by the Upper West Regional Office of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) has decreased from 159 in 2010 to 100 in 2011.

Assistant Chief Fire Officer, (ACFO) Mr. Kwaku Manu Afful, the Regional Fire Officer, announced this at a get together at Wa and commended the personnel of the service in the Region and their partners for working hard towards achieving the reduction.

The Regional Fire Officer thanked the Government for providing the region with seven fire hydrants and a water tanker which made it possible for each fire station in the region to have one fire hydrant with the Wa Municipality having two.

The ACFO however, complained about the lack of easy access to most fire scenes, which he said, made it difficult for them to prevent fire disasters from causing serious damage.

He also complained about the lack of accommodation for fire officers in the Region, saying that, very soon about 23 newly recruited fire personnel would be posted to the Region.

He, therefore, appealed to the Municipal Assembly and the Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) to support the service with more accommodation to enable them to stay comfortably to do their work.

Alhaji Yakubu Duogu, the Wa Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), commended the fire officers for working hard to protect their property against fire disasters.

He said over the years, so much had been done by the Government to improve the working conditions of security services, including the GNFS, and urged them to be patient as government still had the intention of doing more for them.

Alhaji Duogu said the Municipality recently witnessed joint patrols of all the security services and commended them for the wonderful collaboration.

The MCE also commended the Fire Service Command for training fire volunteers in various communities, stating that, because of these fire volunteers some places in the Municipality had never been torched by fire.**