FIRE KILLS 14 IN ASHANTI-FIRE SERVICE

 

ADO 11 Danie Antwi-Ashanti GNFS Command PR Unit

A total of 14 persons were trapped to death in the Ashanti region last year when the houses in which they were gutted by wildfire. The figure shows a sharp increase of nine over the five recorded in 2021.

 The victims included both the young and old with one of them being a 75-year old retired staff of the Ghana Audit Service whose five-bedroom residential facility was razed down in an inferno last year.

The Ashanti Regional Fire Service Command has expressed serious concern about the situation and subsequently advised private residential facility developers to seek professional guidance about the most appropriate safety and security measures to put in place during construction.

An official at the Public Relations Unit of the Command, ADO II Daniel Antwi, made this known to Ashanti Today in an interview in Kumasi.

He noted, despite the situation being a major cause of concern, people continue to provide unsafe protective systems when developing their residential properties with only burglars or thieves in mind without regard for their own safety in times of emergencies such as fire outbreaks.

“Inasmuch as you want to make your home secure in terms of theft by armed robbers, think about fire too that fire can also get in. So when working on your burglar proof, make sure that they are not always locked, you have to get a means in case of emergency, you can have your way out. We saw that, almost all the 14 people were able to get to their entrances but when they got there, they were no way out”, DO 11 Antwi noted.

 The fire officer disclosed that, bush fires that occurred in the region in 2021 shot up from 61 to 197 as at the end of last year with different reasons including the use of naked fire for game hunting, farming and palm wine tapping.  ADO II Antwi mentioned in particular the use of faggot locally known as t3nee’ which is a bundle of dried palm fronds lit with fire to tap wine from palm tree. This, he noted, is not only dangerous but also outdated since salt solution has been found to be a better and safer alternative.

According to ADO 11 Daniel Antwi, “the main purpose they use faggot is to reduce the small small insects that attack the palm tree. The alternative to reduce is to have an ordinary salt solution. After straightening the edges of the palm tree, you apply your perfect salt solution, that is all. It will kill all the germs, insects and other harmful organisms that can affect your palm tree. That one even last longer than using the fire and the taste is better than even the use of fire.”

The fire officer disclosed also that, another disturbing nature of wildfire has been identified in the region. This, he said, involves the rising number of electricity poles burnt at various locations indicating, that last year alone, more than 100 such poles were destroyed by fire. The electricity poles were caught up in bush fires especially when their locations were gutted. ADOII Antwi said the Fire Command has notified the Electricity Company of Ghana, ECG accordingly for preventive measures to be adopted to safeguard the poles wherever they are.

The Ashanti region recorded a total of one thousand, 123 wild fire cases from January to December last year with 431 of them occurring in residential facilities. 

However, in 2021, the region recorded one thousand and 73 fire outbreaks out of which 470 were domestic. According to a staff at the Public Relations Unit of the Ashanti Regional Command of the Ghana National Fire Service, ADO II Daniel Antwi, even though 2022 saw marginal reduction in the domestic fires compared to the preceding year, as many as 14 occupants of the affected houses burnt were trapped to death as against five in similar situations the year before.