Assistant Chief Fire Officer (ACFO), Madam Janet Agyeiwaa Duah, Volta Regional Commander of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), says the Service is determined to reduce fire outbreaks in the Region.

She said the Service had, therefore, embarked on an intensive sensitisation drive aimed at ensuring public compliance with fire prevention and safety protocols.

ACFO Duah, who was speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), said fire prevention was a shared responsibility and citizens must play their part by following the advice from the Service on fire protocols.

The Commander said the various Municipal and District Fire Officers were tasked to create awareness of the public on fire prevention and educate them on the need to observe the precautionary measures.

ACFO Duah said human and other resources the country continued to lose through fire outbreaks were having a serious toll on development, necessitating stringent measures to curb the situation.

The Commander called for public support to tackle the fire menace.

She said the destruction of the country's vegetation cover by human activities, including bush fires continued to have negative effects on the sustainability of the environment.

ACFO Duah urged farmers to avoid setting fire to the bush and adopt good farming practices, including creating fire belts to prevent the fire from entering their farms to destroy their crops.

The Commander implored market women who cook at the market to properly extinguish naked fires and ashes after cooking to prevent fire outbreak as any least spark could cause fire during the harmattan period.

She called on people, who use electrical gadgets to endeavour to switch them off and avoid overloading them, especially the extension cords as such could lead to fire outbreaks.

The Commander also called for proper and careful handling of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) during transport, discharge and storage processes, making sure right measures were taken to avoid any situation that could result in fire outbreaks.