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Vice President Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur has stressed the need for the Ghana National Fire Service to embrace current innovations in the fire fighting sphere, to tackle the chronic fire outbreaks in the country. He said owing to Ghana�s peculiar situation of congested and haphazard development in built up areas and markets, coupled with heavy vehicular traffic, it was essential to find effective means of minimizing the loss of lives and property when such happenings occurred. Vice President Amissah-Arthur made the call over the weekend at the demonstration of the Avertis Tactical Response Vehicle, a rapid response platform that could be deployed a a first response to fires in built up areas where conventional tenders would find difficulty in accessing. The vehicle, based on a Toyota Hilux pick-up truck, and fitted with a very high pressure water pumping system, can enable fire fighters gain access to congested areas with undefined pathways and rapidly douse fire at its source, before they spread to cause further damage. The swift fire tender, is manufactured by Carmichael, a United Kingdom- based world acclaimed fabricator of specialised platforms and applications for fire-fighting in diverse arenas. The event was also used to showcase 10 motor bikes acquired by government to support the effective combat of market fires. The motorbikes have been strapped with sizeable fire extinguishing tanks that could be filled with the different chemical compounds to quenching diverse kinds of fires. Vice President Amissah-Arthur said owing to the fact that most communities in Ghana are unplanned, with structures built on areas meant for access to these structures, every intervention aimed making such congested areas accessible during fire outbreaks was applauded. He said the acquisition of the fire-fighting motor bikes was at the heart of mechanisms being put in place by government to make it easier for personnel of the GNFS to respond swiftly to fires in markets and built-up areas like slums where the movement of fire tenders and fire fighting personnel are hindered. Dr Albert Brown Gaisie, a Deputy Chief Fire Officer and Director of Operations of the GNFS said the ser vice was testing the effectiveness of the various rapid response platforms and that this would inform future acquisitions. Mr Brian Wiggins, Sales Director of Carmichael said his company was showcasing new fire combat technologies that had proven effective and efficient in managing fire outbreaks like the recent ones that Ghana faced. He was hopeful that the GNFS would realisze the need to adopt that platform as a response to the control of fire in jammed areas in the country.