Property worth GH¢83.5m lost to fire and 13 people killed in Ashanti

Thirteen (13) people were killed and property costing GH¢83,571,904.00, got lost to fire in the Ashanti Region, last year.

The Regional Fire Officer, Mr. Semekor Fiadzo, who announced this said in all 1,356 fire incidents, were recorded during the period.

The figure, he told the Ghana News Agency (GNA), represented a 6.2 per cent increase over the previous year’s total of 1,198.

Domestic and bushfires between them constituted 59.7 per cent of the reported cases with industrial, vehicular, institutional, electronic, commercial, and the others making up the remaining 40.3 per cent.

Deputy Chief Fire Officer (DCFO) Fiadzo identified faulty electrical gadgets and negligence as the major causes.

He said he found this deeply worrying and pointed out that most of the fire outbreaks were preventable.

He renewed the call to the people to heed fire safety education to stop the havoc – the loss of lives and destruction of property.

They should avoid illegal power connection, must engage competent people to carry out electrical wiring of their houses and remove the plugs from electrical sockets, when the appliances were not in use.

He also expressed concern about the situation where people had built on water hydrants and said that tended to make things difficult for the firefighters during emergencies.

There are 58 water hydrants in Kumasi but only 11 can now be accessed because the structures had been erected on them.

DCFO Fiadzo appealed to the city planners to go the extra mile to ensure that these were protected.

Source: GNA

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