General Public Cautioned Against Bribing Fire Officers To Get Recruited

Mr. Edwin Ekow Blankson, the Acting Chief Fire Officer (CFO) on Tuesday advised the general public not to bribe any fire officer or personnel for enlistment into the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS).

He warned that disciplinary measures would also be taken against any personnel who would extort or collect monies from unsuspecting applicants.

Addressing personnel of the Brong-Ahafo Regional Command in Sunyani, as part of a familiarisation visit to the region, the Acting CFO noted that the GNFS was aware that some personnel were engaged in such dubious acts which were tarnishing the image of the Service.

He reminded the general public that the GNFS had postponed its national recruitment exercise, saying that a new date for that would be fixed and announced soon.

The Acting CFO Blankson explained that the Ministry of Interior would soon resource the GNFS to position it well to respond to fire outbreaks.

In this regard, the Ministry has directed the Service to audit, list and submit to it the necessary tools and equipment that would make the Service more proactive.

Mr. Blankson observed the GNFS had not been able to work effectively in the past years because of the lack of dedicated clothing and protective equipment for the personnel.

He said due to the lack of those protective equipment and other operational challenges, many personnel of the Service had been injured in their attempts to suppress fire outbreaks.

ACFO James Owusu-Adjei, the Brong-Ahafo Regional Commander of the GNFS said the Command was in deficit with regard to vital communication gadgets, adding that though it had been provided with Gota handsets, they were woefully inadequate.

He said 631 staff of the Command was inadequate, adding that more personnel were needed to man the present and upcoming stations in the region.

ACFO Owusu-Adjei said despite the shortfall in the fire stations, the Command had been able to achieve the international response time of six minutes and it was far advanced in going paperless as proposed by the Service.

In terms of fire outbreaks, the Regional Commander said his outfit responded to 415 incidents in 2017 as compared to the 636 fire outbreaks recorded in the previous year.

ACFO Owusu-Adjei said last year the fire outbreaks caused extensive damage to properties totalling GH¢1,659,688, adding that no fatality was however recorded.

More so, the regional Command attended to 171 road traffic accidents which claimed 91 lives and 284 people injured, he added.

ACFO Owusu-Adjei said the Command had fully complied with the headquarters directives on 'standby' duties at fuel filling stations, adding that its safety department was able to rake in GH¢91, 500 funds internally as compared to the 2016 figure of GH¢50,732.