7 killed, 30 injured in Brong Ahafo fires in 2016

A total of seven people have been killed while 30 others have suffered varying degrees of burns through the 213 separate fire incidents recorded in the Brong-Ahafo Region between January and February this year. Additionally, properties worth GH?3,000,000.00, have been lost to the fires.

Assistant Chief Fire Officer (ACFO) Tony Augustine Gomez, the Brong-Ahafo Regional Commander of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), disclosed this at a public fire education programme at Nana Bosoma Central Market in Sunyani.

He said bush and domestic fires accounted for more than 75 percent of the recorded blazes.

The Regional Fire boss said, his outfit has also not been spared the negative impact of the fires, as up to GH?200,000, has been lost through Fire Suppression efforts.

ACFO Gomez indicated that the increasing fire outbreaks in the region at the beginning of the year was not best and asked the public do everything to stem the rising trend especially during the harsh, dry harmattan weather being experienced across the country.

Citing careless use of Liquefied Petroleum Gas, overloading of electricity extension boards and the indiscriminate setting of bushfires by farmers and hunters as some of the causes of fires, he called on all and sundry to be more cautious when handling inflammable materials.

He said though environmental impacts of fires cannot be quantified, the devastating consequences for the nation can be huge since farmlands can all be denuded.

ACFO Gomez appealed to all stakeholders to support the service in its bid to curb the gloomy trend of fires and accompanying fatalities.