Personnel of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) has called on Ghanaians to seek the services of qualified electricians to undertake electrical work in their homes and workplaces to help avert fire outbreaks.
It said the frequent fire outbreaks in the country could be attributed to inferior electrical cables used by quack electricians for electrical wiring, therefore, any higher power voltage that run through them trigger fire.
Assistant Division Officer Emmanuel Bonney, the Western Regional Public Relations Officer of the GNFS, said this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Fijai.
He appealed to the public to remember to switch off their electrical gadgets and unplug them from the socket before leaving their homes and workplaces to avoid any mishap.
Most home appliances use 240 or less voltage and whenever there is power interruption, the power voltage could increase to about 250 voltages, and if your wiring system is weak or faulty, it could trigger an outbreak, he said.
Mr Bonney cautioned parents to ensure that their children do not play with ignition sources such as lighters, candles, matches, mosquito coils and any naked fire because they could easily cause a fire outbreak.
He said the dryness of the weather as a result of the harmattan has made the environment volatile for quick spread of fire.
He said any time candles and coils are lighted, they must be kept in metal plates with little water around it such that it would automatically go off after burning.
He also cautioned the public to avoid painting their old gas cylinders, but rather dispose them off to avoid explosion.
“Whenever your gas cylinder is leaking you must change the valve instead of putting heavy stones on the regulator to stop it because little gas leakages will accumulate in the room and could result in fire outbreak when there is any ignition from a fire source”, he said.
Mr Bonney said the main fire cases of 2015 were categorized into domestic, industrial and commercial cases, as well as institutional, vehicular and bush fires.
He said a total of 353 fire cases were recorded as at November 2015, out of the figure, 22 were industrial, 50 commercial and 39 bush fires, as well as 137 domestic, three institutional and 50 vehicular fire incidents.
Source: GNA
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