Sowutuom transformer fire: Fire Service slams ECG over unresponsiveness

The Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) has criticised the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) over its lack of timely response when the company is alerted over fire incidents involving electricity installations.

The criticism follows a fire incident at Anyaa, near the Heaven Church road in Accra, involving a transformer on Tuesday night, March 19, 2024.

Though the Fire Service personnel arrived in time to douse the fire on the transformer, they required the ECG to cut off the power supply to the area so they could fight the fire.

However, the ECG failed to cut off the power well over 20 minutes after it was informed, leaving the fire to cause more damage to the transformer.

In a video posted on the Ghana National Fire Service Facebook page on the fire incident, Senior Fire Officer ADO Alex King Nartey, while expressing frustration over the attitude of the ECG, urged the power distributing company to be more responsive.

"These are some of the challenges we experience when it comes to prompt response from the Electricity Company of Ghana. It has been over 20 minutes now since our crew arrived here, ready to fight the fire. As you can see, the hose has been laid, the appliance parked, all geared up to fight the fire.

"For a while now, we have been waiting on the ECG to cut the power supply to the area before our men can apply water to it. This and many more are some of the challenges our men face because as af now, we are just waiting for ECG to cut power supply, and it's been over 20 minutes now, and we are still waiting on them.

"So we will call on stakeholders, especially ECG to be more responsive to the Ghana National Fire Service in terms of assistance because invariably this (transformer) is their property and we are doing our best to help save their property. The lack of prompt response from them ends up becoming a big challenge for us as a service."