The Deputy Director of Safety of Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), Divisional Officer Grade One (DOI), Micheal Ato Korsah has advised the general public and house owners to take safety precaution seriously when building their houses.
According to him, people hold security in a higher preference than safety when building houses which caused individuals to get stuck in their houses when there was fire outbreak.
“People are always bothered about security for that matter put security in higher preference to their safety, we are saying that in as much as we thinking security is good, we should consider the safety as well,” he said.
DOI Korsah said this in an interview with Ghanaian Times on fire safety measures in household at the back of the loss of the police officer and his family at the recent fire outbreak in Kumasi.
A Police Officer, his wife and three-month-old baby boy who were burnt to death in a fire that guttered their apartment at Apromase when they could not escape.
He said that, the family could not escape from the fire because the windows were barricaded and evaporation became difficult which caused the loss.
GNFS reports says a total of 1,109 fire outbreak cases has been recorded between last December and January this year.
DOI Korsah added that, individuals should not over ride their safety for security because both precautions were serious to think about when building a house, saying “you can be secure and not safe but you can be safe and be secured.”
He advised the general public to have collapsible burglarproof window to be able to escape from when there was an emergency.
“So it is important public note that we do not have to barricade and get stuck in the building, it’s good to secure your building but at least leave one window that, you can pull out or side to escape through when there is fire outbreaks,” he added.
Furthermore, he advice individuals to keep fire extinguishers and smoke detectors in their homes, which could help them detect fires and put the fires out.
He noted that every homes should have gas detectors that would detect gas linkage because “of late odor were not put in gas, so individual were not familiar with that even when it linking.”
DOI Korsah noted that, study showed that electric wiring and appliances are the most cause of fire outbreaks in the country.
This, he said, was important to change a house or build wiring system every 15-20 years to prevent weak wires from triggering.
However, he said about 60 per cent of buildings in the country wiring systems were old which brought unnecessary heat buildup, therefore any little over load on the system cost fire outbreaks.
BY CECILIA LAGBA
