The three-day conference is also to share ideas on how to address issues on disasters, fire outbreaks and flood management, as well as rescue and emergency preparedness.

The conference has brought together stakeholders in the fire safety management sector, comprising the Ghana Water Company Limited, the Electricity Company of Ghana, the Forestry Commission and the Environmental Protection Agency.

It is on the theme: “Enhancing effective fire management for national development”.

Rapid Intervention Vehicles

Opening the conference yesterday, the Minister for the Interior, Ambrose Dery, said the government was making progress with the procurement of rapid intervention vehicles (RIVs) to help the GNFS to navigate its way through traffic to arrive at emergency scenes on time.

“One of the 300 RIVs has been delivered to the GNFS on a pilot basis to improve response time to incidents from the current nine minutes to five minutes,” he said.

Fire outbreaks

The Chief Fire Officer (CFO), Julius A. Kuunuor, said 5,155 fire outbreaks were recorded across the country between January and October 31, this year.

Out of the figure, he said, domestic fires were the highest: 1,961 outbreaks, followed by bush fires, 737, and electrical fires, 418 outbreaks.

Mr Kuunuor said 366 fire incidents were recorded across the country in October this year, compared to the 1,090 incidents recorded in January alone.

He said the high rate of fire outbreaks in January was due to severe weather conditions experienced during the harmattan period.

The Chief Fire Officer also explained that the decline in fire outbreaks from January was due to intensive fire safety education, patrols at the markets, bush fire prevention education and key installations nationwide.

Mr Kuunuor said in spite of improvement in managing fires across the country, there was the need for experts and stakeholders to work together to achieve better results.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Jospong Group of Companies, Joseph Siaw Agyapong, who chaired the opening, expressed the hope that the country would leverage resources and initiatives to ensure the effective management of fire outbreaks.