The Tema Regional Command of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) has revealed an upsurge of domestic fire outbreaks over the past two years in the Tema Region.
Assistant Chief Fire Officer I (ACFOI), Madam Doris Lamptey who is the GNFS Tema Regional Commander attributed the main causes to activities in the kitchen and improper wiring of electrical gadgets.
“Most of the houses have their wires worn out and some do not have proper wiring which ends up catching fire,” ACFOI Lamptey told the Ghana News Agency in an interview in Tema.
She expressed concern about the spate of domestic fire outbreaks as most of them were caused by preventable human errors.
Giving data to back the figures, she said a total of 510 fire outbreaks were recorded in 2020 out of 180 domestic cases saying in 2021, the region recorded 586 cases with domestic rising to 210.
The Tema GNFS Regional Commander added that while 50 cases of vehicular cases were recorded in 2020, a total of 105 cases were recorded in 2021.
She said there were 13 industrial cases in 2020 and also 13 cases in 2021 and while 117 commercial fire outbreaks were recorded in 2020, a sum of 194 cases was noted in 2021.
ACFOI Lamptey mentioned that 38 electronics fire outbreaks were registered in 2020 while 8 cases were recorded in 2021 adding that, 77 bush fires were recorded in 2020 while 30 bushfires occurred in 2021.
She added that 14 institutional cases were recorded in 2020 and six cases in 2021.
ACFOI Lamptey explained that other sources of fire outbreaks including accidents and others were 21 in 2020 and 29 in 2021 noting that, six deaths occurred in 2020 and rose to 24 in 2021.
She said the command had initiated regular sensitizations in all the communities in the region to reduce the trend and called on the public to adhere to fire service protocols.
