The Ghana National Fire Service has educated the management of Kaneshie market and the Kaneshie Market Association on safety measures to be put in place to prevent fire outbreaks during the intense harmattan season.
The awareness programme held on Thursday was to intensify the campaign on the prevention of fire outbreaks in accordance with the severe outbreak that gutted the Central Medical Stores of the Ghana Health Service.
Mr Ebenezer Simpson, Director of Fire Safety, Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) in his address, noted that prevention is of major concern to his outfit and hence the education to cover industries, market places and the formation of taskforces to assist in their work.
He assured that the GNFS had fire stations on alert to ensure that fire outbreaks are put under control.
Mr Simpson mentioned that fire safety is a shared responsibility and therefore appealed to the general public to adhere to the safety practices as required and prescribed by the service.
The Director said statistics indicated that December, January and February had always been the highest in fire outbreak periods due to the climatic conditions, hence the need for residents and traders at market places to be extra vigilant to prevent any unwanted outbreaks.
Ms Genevieve Nana Derby, Group Officer of the GNFS, educating the people urged that there was a regular inspection of faulty electrical equipments, avoid overheating and misuse of electrical gadgets, leaving electrical appliances on for a longer period could generate heat and should be avoided.
She said there were fire volunteer’s corps in the various communities who would be checking incidents of bushfires.
She advised against the use of candles, mosquito coils, and goose lamp to prevented fire outbreaks.
Landlords and landladies are advised to procure fire safety appliances such as extinguishers to protect their homes.
Ms Derby again advised that flammable liquids must be stored in air-tight containers, avoiding vaporization, adding that the burning of refuse without care should be check since these could cause a severe outbreak.
Mr Asare Ampene, Deputy Managing Director of the Market Management Board, expressed gratitude to the GNFS personnel for the education, adding that, the market officials valued the importance of fire prevention and as such has made provision for procuring fire safety appliances to aid them in case of any outbreak.
He said they together with the market queens would ensure that they engaged competent people to ensure things were done legally in the markets as well as fumigating the place constantly to prevent rodents having access to cable wire that would cause fire outbreak.
He said there were accessible lanes for the personnel to get to the site of fire in case of an outbreak as well as a bore-hole at the market square to supply water to the fire service whenever there was shortage of water during fire fighting.
Mrs Lydia Quaye, President, Kaneshie Market Association,said all the measures put in place were to ensure that there were no outbreaks and even if there was, there would be the needed logistics to fight the fire.
She called on all the traders to adhere to safety measures for the safety of all.
Mr Simpson further commended the Association and management of the Market for the high level of measures they had put in place to ensure that fire fighting was made easier for the personnel in case of an outbreak.
He urged individuals to also play a watch dog role in making sure that the right things were done for the good of all.
He encouraged other markets and the Accra Metropolitan Assembly to make sure leaders of the markets emulate this positive trend to ensure they live in a fire free market as well as environment.
He called on Ghanaians to call their direct lines 0302-779637 or 0302-666576 or emergency line 192 in case of an outbreak.
