Almost 30,000 fire outbreaks have been recorded in the last years. Half of these fires recorded in homes end sadly with family members losing property and sometimes loved ones.
The only cause of this is the lack of a fire extinguisher and the technical know-how to operate it in homes and offices.
Having realized this and how timely extinguishers are, MBA safety Ghana Limited, an environmental and safety company has initiated the One Facility, One Extinguisher campaign to get Ghanaians to understand the need to have an extinguisher ready at home or offices.
The One-facility-One-fire extinguisher project will as apart of the campaign to provide customers with fire extinguishers at reduced prices and also provide training on its uses.
Radio Ghana’s correspondent Yvonne Atilego who witnessed the launch said the Abelenkpe Fire Service Commander Ben Quarshie welcomed the initiative and expressed worry over the absence of extinguishers in most facilities in the country.
Commander Ben Quarshie believes that the One-facility-One fire extinguisher project will go a long way to help bring down the high number of fire cases
The Ghana National Fire Service says 5,531 fire outbreaks were recorded across the country last year alone. Out of these, about 3,753 were extinguished by the fire service, while 1,823 cases were quenched by residents with some not being able to be quenched at all leaving most people to lose almost all their belongings.
It is also regrettable to know that about 80% of these fires could have been detected and fought at the earlier stages of the fires if smoke detectors and fire extinguisher were available or near the fire scene.
This situation, the MBA Safety Ghana Limited and the Ghana National Fire Service hope to change by urging the public to install at least one fire extinguisher in their homes, offices and cars.
Mrs Adwoa Pharin, the Head of marketing at MBA Safety Ghana Limited said the One Facility, One Fire Extinguisher project apart from providing extinguishers for facilities will also train persons on the use of extinguishers in order for people to be able to fight fire before it gets out of control.
The Abelenkpe Fire Service Commander Ben Quarshie who educated the public on the right number to contact the service on expressed worry over the publics’ constant accusation that fire service personnel get to fire scenes late.
He said the public is partly to be blamed for such lapses because they always dial wrong contacts of the service.
He said there is the need for every facility to own a fire extinguisher as it is the only surest way to minimize fire outbreaks.
During the programme, there was a demonstration on how to extinguish fire with the fire extinguisher especially when detected early.
MBA Safety Ghana Limited is located in Tema and hopes to roll-out the campaign across the whole country.
STORY: YVONNE ATILEGO
