Monetary Value of Gutted Properties, Difficult to Say

The Greater Accra Regional Fire Officer, S. Nana Brenya, has stated that it is very difficult to quantify the monetary value of people�s properties destroyed by fire. He added, �victims of fire outbreaks do not really open up to tell us how much loss they have suffered to the fires. They only think about their plight at the moment of the unfortunate situation they have suffered.� From this background, he could not give a rough figure but he however, said that the amount runs into billions of Ghana Cedis. Speaking on the theme, �Attitudinal Change � Key to Fire Safety�, he mentioned that it beholds on everyone to be safety conscious in his or her day-to-day activities and gave the advice that people should desist from acts that has the potential of creating fires. He said the recorded data on fire outbreaks from January to August this year in the greater Accra Region stands at 759. ACFO Nana Brenya, stated that out of the stated figure, 605 representing 79% of the fire outbreaks involved domestic, commercial and electrical facilities. He stressed that attitude is key in the role of safety measures to reduce plausible incidents of fire. He added, �We must learn how to protect ourselves, family members, friends and society in general from the hazards of fire.� S. N. Brenya stated again that carelessness, ignorance and complacency are the most common causes of fire. Giving details of the deadly nature of fire outbreaks, he explained, �Most fires occur between 10pm and 6am, when people are asleep while most fire related deaths are caused by smoke and not the fire.� He said fire and smoje travel quickly with very tragic consequences such that a fire can engulf a home in 6 minutes but smoke will engulf the same home in just 2 minutes. He then advised that it is about time people began to fix smoke detectors in their houses for early detection since one could be lost in his own home if fire strikes and the blanket of smoke descends. Public Relations Officer for the Greater Accra Regional Fire Service, DOIII Freda Lamptey, pointed out that the purpose of for the launch of the fire safety programme is to draw people attention to create the awareness of fire prevention instead of fire fighting. She said though their mandate is to respond to and deal with fire situations, prevention is better than the far-reaching consequences of fight the fires when they break out. She stated that the regional launch follows the National Fire Safety launch, which took place in April this year and as the Regional Fire Safety has been launched, a whole lot of sensitization exercises would be going on within their various district divisions.