The Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) has asked the general public to observe basic safety principles to avoid fire outbreaks wherever they find themselves.
The advice comes after a gas explosion at Takoradi on the morning of Tuesday May 9 left more than 100 people injured, four of them firemen.
The fire, according to Daniel Dadzie, a local reporter, started at the Ghana Home Utility Manufacturing Company at about 7:45am during a discharge of gas into its tanks.
It spread to an Olam depot next door and then to a total filling station which caused a huge explosion hurting some people and the fire officers who were battling to quench the blaze at Olam and the Ghana Home Utility Manufacturing Company (GHUMCO).
The injured were sent to GHAPOHA and Effia Nkwanta hospitals for treatment.
Speaking a day after the incident on Ghana Yensom on Accra100.5FM, Western Regional Assistant Chief Fire Officer (ACFO) Dankwah Dwamena said the fire would not have happened had the necessary precautions been taken by those who started it.
He, thus, appealed to individuals to endeavour to reduce the risk of fire in their surroundings including bringing down temperatures – a factor for combustion together with oxygen and fuel – and repairing faulty cylinders as well as having basic firefighting equipment in their buildings and vehicles.
“…We should exercise greater caution. Exercising caution will help us all: no lives will be lost, no property damaged, the country will not spend too much money fixing things. So practising safety is for your own good at home, work, and wherever you find yourself,” he told host Chief Jerry Forson.
ACFO Dwamena added that some of the fire personnel who sustained burns in the blaze had been treated and discharged.
Source: Ghana/AccraFM.com
