RE-TOOL FIRE SERVICE NOW (OCT 23, 2009)

THE Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) is seriously under resourced and the fire that completely ravaged the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building in Accra last Wednesday night is a clear testimony to this.
The Daily Graphic thinks the GNFS needs to be re-tooled, and with great urgency too, considering that the fire at the ministry exposed the service to serious lapses in our management of natural disasters, especially with regard to fire outbreaks.
We are worried because the service cannot perform its core duties effectively when the tools needed to undertake those duties are not available.
But the situation really goes far beyond the provision of logistics for the service; it also has to do with the planning of our cities and urban centres all over the country.
In the districts, the GNFS operates like an ordinary office, with no sense of urgency, because of the apparent lack of resources.
In cases where there are fire hydrants, the lack of proper planning and monitoring has led to water in those hydrants drying up.
Furthermore, the lack of planning has ensured that fire fighters would have to meander their way through heavy traffic and by the time they reach a disaster zone the fire must have completely devastated lives and property.
What is really worrying is the fact that Ghana is catching up with modernity in terms of high-rise buildings. And if the GNFS cannot deal with challenges in a 10-storey building in this modern day, then the lives of many Ghanaians and foreigners cannot simply be guaranteed.
We also know that the response of the service to distress calls leaves much to be desired.
But, by and large, the personnel have proved incapable on many occasions, not for want of trying but because the tools are not there to help them to deliver.
However, the GNFS cannot be treated with such contempt. It is one of the key institutions that we need if we are to protect lives and property. We should stop pretending that we are poor and, therefore, cannot resource such an important institution, only for us to turn around to pass the buck when natural calamity strikes.
What we have lost to the fire at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is quite unfortunate. Indeed, the loss is not only staggering but irreparable.
The tragedy should be a wake-up call for us to put in place some strategies to protect our heritage and national property. It also calls for the creation of a data bank in which records of all important national files will be kept as back ups which can be retrieved in case of an emergency.
The DAILY GRAPHIC hopes that the report of the committee that will be set up to look into the circumstances that led to the fire outbreak will not gather dust in the files but will be implemented to bring about reforms in disaster prevention and management.