The Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) has given owners of some high rise buildings in the country a two-week ultimatum to comply with fire safety regulations or face sanctions.
This follows the inspection of some high-rise buildings in the national capital, Accra, by a team of fire service personnel to intensify fire education and safety in the face of recent fire outbreaks.
After inspecting the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building, Deputy Public Relations Officer of the GNSF, Prince Billy Anaglatey noted that although there are adequate firefighting materials, the ministry needs to fix its basement in case the unexpected happens.
“They have all the firefighting materials, early detection equipment adequately positioned but unfortunately there are few things that are lacking. With their basement, there are a lot of combustible materials that were just thrown out there which serve as a fire-load.
In case of the slightest fire, these materials will start burning and spread the fire to other areas.” The story at the office of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) and the Silver Star Towers, were not different.
''Accessibility to some of those landing valve points have been a problem. Also, the firefighting extinguishers are inadequate so they have to get more.”
Outlining some of the irregularities in those buildings inspected, Mr. Anaglatey said records of the inspection will be presented to a board for the appropriate action to be taken.
Thus, they are giving management of the facilities a two week ultimatum to comply with the recommendations and work towards fixing them.
“Everything that we pick from here will be sent out to a board for assessment. Within two weeks, they need to rectify all that we are saying. If they fail to do so, they may face court actions or have the facility closed down.”
The GNFS commissioned a taskforce since October last year to have fire safety audits in all high-rise buildings in the country in order to intensify fire safety measures.
Meanwhile, management of SSNIT wants the deadline extended to a month. “The recommendations are good and we will work towards it as far as human life is precious to us.
However, the two week ultimatum is too short and we think the fire service should give us at least about a month so we can prepare. We are dealing with management and you know it will take some time for such things to be finalized,” General Service Officer for SSNIT, Francis Abigi, told Citi News.
Source: citifmonline.com
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