Ashanti Region loses GHC5 million to fires

The Ashanti Region recorded 230 fires, resulting in three deaths and costing GHC5 million from faulty electrical wires alone in the last 10 years.

In the same period, over 300 victims suffered from various degrees of burns, with some life threatening.

The Ashanti Regional Public Relations Officer of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), Desmond Ackah said this during a one day electrical seminar on cables and accessories organised by Tropical Cable and Conductor Limited in Kumasi.

It was aimed at educating the over 300 certified electrical contractors and inspectors about the product lines and codes and understanding the product lines Tropical Cable and Conductor Limited.

They were also introduced to the scratch seals on the products of TCCL when sent as short message services (SMS) to a short code certifies that the product was original and provides other details.

Mr Ackah noted that over the years, investigations by the GNFS had indicated that a lot of fires erupted due to the shoddy work of unqualified and uncertified electrical contractors who undertake wiring of the houses.

He said others were also due to the use of substandard electrical wires and circuits that easily catch fires, whiles others refuse to put fuses at the appropriate areas that arrest or take the excess power and the resultant fluctuations that might cause fires.

He noted that overloading of electrical gadgets on single plugs was also identified as part of the problems.

Nana Kwame Oteng Gyasi, Marketing and Business Development Manager of TCCL, noted that the company embarked on the seminar to educate the general public and the practitioners about the correct uses of their product and services.

He said the contractors would also be taken through how to identify quality, durable and certified products that would help them undertake quality jobs that would be beneficial to the customers and also save the country from spending so much in quenching fires, and caring for the injured.

He explained that TCCL products were manufactured with the highest international standards suitable for the local environment and that over the years, both international and local experts had attested to their durability.

He urged the general public to insist in using the services of well trained and certified contractors to undertake their wiring and always insist on inspecting the certification of such contractors before engaging them, adding that this was the surest way of averting preventable fires caused by substandard electrical wires and fake electrical contractors.