The Ghana National Fire Service has warned it will deal ruthlessly with persons who start fires indiscriminately.
According to the Deputy Public Relations Officer of the Ghana National Fire Service, Prince Billy Anaglatey, the service is worried about the rampant cases of fire outbreaks recorded in the last few weeks across the country.
[contextly_sidebar id=”YRhvzFljGBXrqp1wDSsDqWb8J4M7XP4K”]Speaking to Citi News he noted, although measures have been put in place to reduce the incidents of fire, those who deliberately set fire to dry areas in the harmattan season, will not go unpunished.
“Unfortunately, the bush fire prevention law, PNDC law 229, is no longer a deterrent to people who contravene these laws. However, anybody who is going contrary or setting fire, we are also looking at it from a criminal point of view and the person can be arrested and put before court.”
He however said measures have been put in place to educate people on how to prevent, particularly, bush fires from spreading.
“The measures that we put in place include fire safety education to the public which we have intensified; fire volunteers have been placed in every community to help individuals with fire belts so the fires don’t exceed or cross over to destroy other areas’’.
Prince Billy Anaglatey also criticized the poor construction of the Kumasi Central Market saying it is one major cause of the many fire outbreaks in the market.
Nearly 500 shops were destroyed in a recent fire that razed almost half of the market.
Billy Anaglatey stressed that the market has not been designed and constructed to prevent fires, explaining there are no alleys which serve as fire guilds, causing the fires to spread faster to other parts of the market resulting in many losses.
‘‘If you look at the market and their positioning, the slightest fire there can quickly sweep all the parts that have been bridged by the materials that have been used from one point to another so fast; because it has not been constructed to prevent fires, there are no allays within the markets. The alleys serve as a market belt and when it’s available, it’s difficult for fire to spread to other parts, but that is not the situation at the Asafo market’’.
He asked the general public to monitor situations and help bring wrong doers to book.
–
By: Jessica Ayorkor Aryee/citifmonline.com/Ghana