Fire Woman Dies After Disastrous Simulation Exercise

Cedi House tower in Accra

A Fire woman's crash to the ground during a fire simulation exercise in Accra last Thursday raises further issues about the nation’s preparedness to fight fire on high-rise buildings.

Deputy Group Officer (DGO) Hannah Yawson fell from the fifth floor of the last Thursday during the exercise and was rushed to hospital.

But the 40-year-old fire officer died around 5 a.m. on Friday at the Intensive Care Unit of the 37 Military Hospital, where she was rushed to, barely 24 hours after the fall, officials of the GNFS and family members confirmed to the Daily Graphic.

The cause of her death will be disclosed by doctors at the hospital to the family and GNFS officials today.

DGO Yawson was due to write a promotion examination last Saturday for the rank of Group Officer (GO) before the tragic incident, and like all other fire personnel, Yawson, described as an active, smart and dedicated fire officer, was yet to be paid her enhanced salary for the month of August under the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS) as of the time of filing this report yesterday.

A member of the Fire Rescue Team, DGO Yawson was among a contingent of 24 fire personnel who undertook the simulation fire rescue exercise on the Cedi House with the view to testing the readiness of the personnel, as well as training workers on the high-rise building to deal with such a situation whenever it occurred.

The simulation exercise involved the application of the ‘Knot Chair’ technique, whereby an unconscious person trapped in a fire situation on such a facility is put in a chair to which a rope is tied and then lowered through a window to safety.

An instructor in that fire rescue technique, DGO Yawson had been training fire personnel on the use of a line (rope) for rescue operations for the past 12 years.

After undertaking three successful ‘rescue’ operations during the simulation exercise, it was the turn of DGO Yawson to be ‘rescued’ from the 5th floor of the Cedi House, but disaster struck in the course of the operation when the rope tied to the chair snapped, leading to her fall.

As a sportswoman, especially as a footballer and referee, the talented fire officer was said to have attempted a safe landing to rescue her own life, but the intense gravitational force and the concrete ground were not helpful in her mission.

The Deputy Head of Public Relations of the GNFS, Mr Prince Billy Anaglate, had explained that the rope might have snapped due to weakness from its long use.

The death of DGO Yawson appeared to have shattered the morale of fire personnel, who are already reeling under poor service conditions, such as low remuneration, as well as inadequate and obsolete equipment and logistics.

Some of the personnel said under normal circumstance, there should have been a facility at the base of the building to cushion anyone who might fall during the exercise, such as the case of DGO Yawson.

Asked whether the Cedi House incident reflected the lack of equipment and logistics of the service, the Head of Public Relations of the GNFS, Mr Sam Sowah Oblejumah, said, “My brother, I don’t want to go there”.

Some fire officers who pleaded anonymity expressed concern about the ‘harsh’ conditions under which they worked.

They said although they had raised those issues on several occasions, nothing had been done to address them.

They said apart from not being paid height allowance for duties such as the one performed on the Cedi House, the lack of requisite equipment and logistics exposed them to danger during fire operations.

Some of the fire personnel also complained about the lack of accommodation as a result of which they had to pay high rent for apartment, which is a serious drain on their income.

They said many fire personnel lived largely on the benevolence of food vendors and traders from whom they bought food and goods on credit.

“With the kind of situation we find ourselves [in] now, when you are going to do something you think twice,” one of the officers said.

The challenges of the GNFS in terms of adequate and requisite equipment have been legend, and the only response given to them had been assurances from the government and public sympathy, particularly anytime those challenges rear their ugly heads in major fire disasters.

The unavailability of essential firefighting equipment such as proximity suit, fire resistant suit, breathing apparatus, turn-table ladder and fire engines has incapacitated the operations of the service for many years now.

The GNFS headquarters station has only one fire resistant suit in the country, which is to be used by fire-fighters to rescue persons who may be trapped in an inferno.

At the moment, the GNFS does not have a turn-table ladder used to gain access to high-rise buildings in case of fire outbreak. The only turn-table ladder in the country became faulty about four years ago.

The fleet of fire engines of the service is badly depleted as majority of the engines are either broken down or rendered operationally deficient. The last time the GNFS took delivery of fire engines was 2003.

All these inadequacies have exposed fire service personnel to extreme danger, coupled with the poor service condition that have resulted in high staff turn-out.

Many fire personnel are said to be dying of “strange diseases” as a result of what some of them claim to be the effects of years of fighting fire without the appropriate equipment.

An average of three fire officers in Accra are reported to have died every year of cardiac diseases as a result of fighting fire without the necessary protection.