Chief Fire Officer Edwin Ekow Blankson
The Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) has denied what it describes as the constant accusation by a section of the public, especially some victims of fire outbreaks and members of the public that firefighters and tenders turn up at fire scenes without water.
A statement by the GNFS noted that such charges originate from a dearth of understanding about the mode of operations of the Service.
“This perception has persisted for a while and we therefore deem it necessary to set the records straight to save our hard won reputation,” the GNFS stated.
Every fire tender at the station including the broken down tenders have water in them and therefore, serviceable tenders always move to the fire scene with water, stressed the statement.
The fire tender does not carry only water, the statement went on, “But other compartments contain hoses, firefighting equipment and tools as well as Road Traffic Collusion extrication equipment and other rescue equipment for emergency operations.”
Continuing with the education about the work of the Service in tackling fires, the statement pointed out that “there is a compartment for water that contains 3,000 litres or 4,000 litres of water for firefighting which can be dispensed within a period of eight (8) minutes depending on the intensity of the fire being dealt with.”
Fire tenders can be requested to augment water supply to the base pump, and is the first appliance to arrive at the fire scene to fight the fire. Under the circumstances, other water tankers also come in to support in that respect.
“Our system is different from other jurisdictions where you can find fire hydrants every 100 meters which makes it easier to have regular access to water for continuous firefighting,” the GNFS stressed, pointing out that where electricity is suspected to be cause of a fire, the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) “is immediately contacted to cut off power supply before effective firefighting commences. Some members of the public however quickly attributes this period of waiting to the GNFS not bringing water to the fire scene, water getting finished from the fire appliance or firemen being confused and waiting for the fire to calm down by itself.”
Firefighters are sometimes attacked for splashing water to adjoining structures when there is fire, a procedure which stops fires from spreading.
The statement signed by DOI Ellis Robinson, Head of Public Relations of the GNFS, asked the public to note that firefighters are professionals who have been trained to do their work, some of them benefitting from foreign training.
The Chief Fire Officer has also issued a directive that firefighters should call for assistance even before the first pump runs out of water.
By A.R. Gomda