The EPA will also collaborate with bulk LPG distribution companies in monitoring operational standards of all oil marketing companies across the country.

In an interview with the Daily Graphic, the acting Director of the Environmental Assessment and Audit Division of EPA, Mr Kwabena Badu-Yeboah, said the agency held a number of training programmes last year, which it would intensify this year to ensure that all regulatory conditions, including the positioning of facilities, car parks, maintaining the right distance between the station and the gas container, temperature gauges and safety measures within the vending premises, were adhered to.

“The EPA will not tolerate any company that will go contrary to conditions specified in their licences. Any company that falls short will be shut down.

“We will also certify those we train and have them display their certificates to indicate their participation in our training programmes,” Mr Badu-Yeboah stated.

Locating stations

Mr Badu-Yeboah said although it was the responsibility of the Town and Country Planning Department to issue permits for the location of gas stations, once a location had been secured, the EPA had the duty to ensure that the facility was safe to operate.

He noted that once the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) and the Town and Country Planning Department (TCPD) did not object to the location of a gas or fuel station, owners could go ahead and build their stations.

Dangers

Mr Badu-Yeboah said the decision to close down theLa LPG gas station that exploded recently and an adjoining one was to make way for the evacuation of gas to prevent “any further danger to public health and safety,” as the head of the agency’s built environment asserted.

He added, “We are still investigating the cause of the fire, so it is very important that we evacuate the fuel to prevent any possible explosion. So until we are done with the investigation, the ban will not be lifted," Mr Badu-Yeboah told the Daily Graphic.

“Sometimes there are natural occurrences that they cannot do anything about it, but sometimes there are human errors which must be corrected,” he said.

He mentioned that the EPA, NPA and the Ghana Fire Service were actively collaborating to ensure they minimised the occurrences of gas explosion.

Mr Badu-Yeboah advised that individuals and the media should actively get involved in educating the public to know the dangers and the safety measures in preventing gas accidents.

Background

Checks from Daily Graphic’s archives between 2007 and 2014 indicate that while 39 persons died, 186 others sustained various degrees of injury in 11 reported accidents involving LPG tankers, LPG filling stations and domestic accidents.

Out of the number, five involved industrial settings — gas stations, fuel stations and a fuel dump — while three were gas tanker crashes. The remaining three were domestic accidents.

By law, adhering to safety standards are mandatory for the granting of permits to site gas filling stations. The law has, however, been flouted with impunity in many areas.

Approval for the building of fuel and LPG stations requires permits from the regulatory agencies, including the EPA, the TCPD, the NPA and the district assemblies.

Mr Badu-Yeboah gave the assurance that those agencies would collaborate effectively going forward to minimise such tragic gas incidents.