The Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) is attributing the frequent fire outbreaks in the country to the inaction of local assemblies, who they say have ignored critical recommendations.

Over 50 fire incidents have been reported in the last seven days, with firefighters currently battling a blaze at Zongo Lane that started on Sunday.

Greater Accra Regional Minister Titus Glover, who visited the scene, announced plans to meet with chief executive officers of the assemblies in the capital to address illegal structures contributing to the outbreaks.

But in an interview with JoyNews, Alex King Nartey, the Public Relations Officer for the GNFS, expressed frustration over the assemblies' failure to act on recommendations made by the Service after fire investigations.

“The challenge we face is that when we do our investigations because the assemblies are the custodians of these markets, we present our findings to them and we make our recommendations but most of the time the recommendations are left yet to be decided.

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“If the recommendations were properly enforced, you will see a lot of early fire warning systems like smoke detectors installed, you will see strong enforcement of not allowing people to cook in the markets,” he said.

Despite these challenges, Mr Nartey assured the public that the GNFS is committed to protecting lives and will continue to fight fires, even at great personal risk.

He also urged the public to be patient with the Service, highlighting the problem of prank calls, which hamper their ability to respond to real emergencies.

He shared instances where prank calls have led to wasted resources, such as dispatching firefighters to non-existent fires, while real emergencies occurred elsewhere.

“Someone will call in saying – you are beautiful, can I have your number? I love your voice, can I have MTN credit?"

Mr Nartey noted that the GNFS has upgraded its fire master control system to track and deal with prank callers effectively.