The Western Regional Fire Command has so far recorded 42 bushfire cases, as at the third quarter (September) 2023, as against total of 45 fire cases in 2022.
For example, in January 2023, the department recorded six cases, February, 11, and March, 10, making total of 27 fire cases, in the first quarter.
In view of this, the Western Regional Rural Fires Department of Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) has intensified campaigns to reduce bushfires, the Western Regional Coordinator, Rural Fire Department, Assistant Divisional Officer (ADO) I Emma Otu-Akwa, told the Ghanaian Times yesterday.
“The supposed cause for the increase in cases can be attributed to negligence on the part of the public. The department has put measures in place to control and prevent the rising trend of bushfires in the region. We have not ended the year, and, already, we have recorded 42 cases,” she said.
She added that anti-bushfire campaigns were making gains due to educational programmes held over the past years.
The Rural Fires Department of the GNFS, ADO I Otu-Akwa stated, was responsible for the control and prevention of bushfires in Ghana with its mandate enshrined in Bushfires Act, PNDC Law 229, Act 1990.
The department, she said, in collaboration with other departments of the service such as safety department, public education unit, and the public relation unit, had intensified fire safety education in churches, schools, workplaces, communities, mosques and the media.
This, ADO 1 Otu-Akwa believed, would create the awareness of the causes, prevention and the effect of bushfires on the environment and mankind.
“Secondly, the department has been able to train over 200 fire volunteers and created task forces to serve as first respondents to any bushfire outbreaks in their respective communities, and also assist farmers in creating fire belt anytime they want to burn their farmland for cultivation,” she said.
She again told the Ghanaian Times that, the department had also engaged some farmers across the districts within the region such as Elubo, Asankragwa, Shama and Mpohor, on how to practise good farming methods to prevent bushfires.
From November to December this year, the regional command, would launch anti-bushfire campaigns and also inaugurate newly trained fire volunteers at Asankragwa in the Wassa Amenfi West District.
Quoting PNDC Law 229, ADO I Otu-Akwa said “It is unlawful for a person to start a bushfire for any purpose. For the purposes of this Act, a person starts a bushfire if an action of that person results in the uncontrolled burning of a farm, forest or grassland.”
“Where a person is convicted of an offence under subsection (1) the court may in addition to the penalty that it may impose order the offender to make good the value of the property, including the crops or trees damaged or destroyed by the fire caused by that person.”
ADO I Otu-Akwa, therefore, called for the collective efforts of stakeholders to sustain the campaigns, assuring that “We will continue to step up anti-bush fire campaigns so that we can improve food security and save our ecology,”
ADO II Linda Afua Pongo of the Public Relations Department, also suggested that partnerships with the media was key to protecting communities against wildfires.
FROM CLEMENT ADZEI BOYE, FIJAI
