Firefighters Are Not Magicians – Com. Giwah
The Acting Ashanti Regional Fire Commander, ACFO1 Henry Giwah, has urged Ghanaians to be abreast with the emergency numbers of the firefighters and use them when necessary.
Speaking at a press conference, ACFO1 Giwah said fire alert calls usually come late making it impossible for the firefighters to arrive on time.
He said on such occasions people, especially those in the Zongo communities, attack their equipments and personnel.
“Our major challenge most of the time, comes when we respond to incidents and the people perceive that we are late, then they try to manhandled some of our men and even our equipments and fire tender”, he said.
Explaining further, ACFO1 Giwah said, “Exactly a week today, we experienced one at Moshie Zongo. We were called to a fire incident at 9:13 and we got there at 9:26.
When we arrived at the scene, the youth there prevented us from executing our lawful mandate to the extent that they wanted to manhandle our crew so they didn’t have any choice than to go back to base.”
He pointed out that, “This is not a good thing. Meanwhile from the media space where I was monitoring, I realised the fire stated around 8am and we got the call around 9:13. I don’t know whether, excuse me to say, they think we are magicians so that when it happens, we should see it from the offices that there is fire outbreak to respond to. Please if you don’t call us to inform us, we will never get to know”.
He also debunked reports that firefighters complain of shortage of water when they get to fire scene.
“People have accused us of not bringing water with us to the fire scene. It can never be possible. No fire officer in his right senses will go to the scene without water. It doesn’t happen,” he said.
Source: opemsuo.com/ Hajara Fuseini
