Emergency fire safety audit is being jointly carried out by the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFC) and the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) on the 12-storey Tower Block Office Complex – popularly known as Job 600 – that accommodates the offices of Members of Parliament MPs.
This follows a fluctuation in power supply to the office complex which reportedly caused fire with thick smoke billowing out of a photo copier and a printing machine as well as an electrical gadget at a kitchenette on the 10th floor of the building.
Had it not been the timely response of the Fire Service personnel stationed in parliament and the immediate reinforcement from the regional office of the Service, calamity would have befallen the nation as the entire block would have been razed down.
The security services are also undertaking sweeping of all the offices in the Tower Block Office Complex alongside the fire safety audit to ensure that the MPs’ offices are properly secured and safe from any security interference.
The exercises went on the whole of yesterday, with the MPs, their special and research assistants hanging around.
At the time of the fire incident on Tuesday, the leadership of parliament was locked up in a crucial meeting at the first deputy speaker’s office – located on the 10th floor of the building – on how finishing touches could be done to the overhauling and amendments of the Standing Orders of Parliament to reflect the changing needs and demands of the society.
One legislator who has been consistent on how fire safety should be of prime concern to MPs in Job 600 is the minority chief whip, Alhaji Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka – the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member for Asawase in the Ashanti Region.
He had asked the leadership to call on the minister for the interior to brief the house on fire safety measures in the complex since the Ghana National Fire Service does not have hydraulic platforms to fight fire outbreaks in high-rise buildings like the Tower Block.
Mr Muntaka Mubarak made the request recently when the NDC MP for Akan in the Volta Region, Abdul Aziz Muniru, made a statement on fire safety in high-rise buildings following the fire outbreak in a 24-storey Greenfell Tower in London
The speaker, Prof Mike Oquaye, was compelled to summon the minister for the interior to brief the house on fire safety measures in high-rise buildings since a lot of them are springing up in the cities.
By Thomas Fosu Jnr