Emmanuel Tetteh Akinie
THE TEMA REGIONAL OFFICE of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) says that it is yet to receive a report from the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) of the area, to the effect that some faulty prepaid meters were causing a surge in fire outbreaks in the area.
The Tema ECG therefore denies media reports alleging that an upsurge in domestic and electrical fires in the Tema Metropolis was largely caused by suspected faulty meters.
The Commander of the Tema Regional Fire Service, DOI Timothy Osafo Affum, has said that statistics on fire outbreaks in the Tema Metropolis for the year 2020 showed an increase of 5%; meaning that, from 489 cases recorded  in 2019, a total of 510 cases of domestic and electrical fires, being the two leading cases concerned, were recorded in 2020,,
According to Osafo Affum, the new ECG prepaid meters installed in various homes, were themajor cause of these infernos.
The Fire Service boss mentioned that although the Command had been given assurances by the ECG on the durability of these meters, recent incidents showed otherwise.
However, the Emmanuel Tetteh Akinie Tema Regional Manager of ECG, has shot down such a claim. In an interview with DAILY GUIDE, he said that they had not received any compliant from their customers or from the ECG indicating that their electric meters caused fire outbreaks.
According to him, “We have not received any report from ECG, to enable us to study and appropriately respond to it. We expect that they give us a copy of the report so that we can also know what the situation is.
“We are even surprised that this has come up, and as far we are concerned we are not aware of any faulty meter causing a fire. We have written to them to give us a case-by-case basis on such incident.”
Tetteh Akinie stated that they would be engaging the Ghana National Fire Service, to have detailed information on what was being claimed, but that as at now, there is no report specifically linking fire outbreaks to a meter ;since the meters go through rigorous testing before being imported into the country.
FROM Vincent Kubi, Tema