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The Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) has disclosed that a total of 2,707 cases of fire outbreaks nationwide were recorded between January and May this year, with the loss of property estimated at Ghc 10,244,493. Dr. Albert Brown Gaisie, Chief Fire Officer, who disclosed this during the opening of a two-day Directors and Regional Fire Officers Conference in Cape Coast, said the fires also claimed 14 lives during the period. He indicated that the Service was only able to conduct fire safety audit into 69 cases, out of the total figure, including the recent fire and flood incident at the Goil Filling Station in Accra, due to limited resources at its disposal. The conference on the theme: �Heightening the Role of the Ghana National Fire Service in National Development,� would among other things, offer the higher ranks of the Fire Service the opportunity to evaluate and do self-retrospection as to the performance of the service and the way forward. It would also look at the strategic directional polices, as well as other operational responses, and put in place some contingency plans to deal with the emerging trends of undesirable disasters that occurred in the country. Dr. Gaisie observed that a major proportion of the citizenry lacked the needed know-how, as far as total fire safety was concerned, and reiterated his commitment to tighten fire safety education campaign, to create awareness throughout the country. He stated that there must be a paradigm shift from reactive to more preventive measures, so far as fighting fire was concerned. The Chief Fire Officer disclosed that the Service had so far organized capacity-building programmes for 550 fire personnel, and urged other fire persons to constantly upgrade themselves, to keep up with modern ways of dealing with fires. Mr. James Agalga, Deputy Minister of the Interior, said Government had provided more than 250 fire tenders, thirteen recovery trucks and four mobile services trucks to the GNFS, to improve upon efficiency in the service since its assumption of office in 2009. He stressed that the task of ensuring public safety must not be the sole responsibility of the Fire Service, and therefore stressed the need for a public-private partnership, to ensure absolute public safety in the country. Mr Agalga said the Government was delighted with the decision by the Fire Service to institute legal action against defaulters of Legislative Instrument (LI 1724), and promised that all the needed logistics would be provided to ensure effectiveness. Mr. Kenneth Dzirasah, Chairman of the Fire Service Council, noted that though there had been considerable improvement in all aspects of the Service, more needed to be done for the Service to gain the deserved status, to match the other security services. He advised the Directors and Regional Commanders to maintain unity among themselves, adding, �you would be better off in unity to be able to stand up to the numerous challenges facing the Service and make significant achievement�. A minute silence was observed in memory of those who lost their lives during the June 3 incident, and all those who had lost their lives through such disasters.