Chief Fire Officer (CFO), Dr Brown-Gaisie, says lack of enforcement of fire regulations accounts for the increasing spate of outbreaks in the country.

Eleven people have died and property worth thousands of cedis destroyed in fire incidents in less than a month in the Ashanti Region alone.

Dr Brown-Gaizie lauded personnel for their swift response to the outbreaks but he pointed out that proactive action is needed to prevent the fire in the first place.

The CFO who is in Kumasi to launch fire safety programs and also sympathize with families of fire victims inspected a guard mounted in his honour before interacting with journalists and senior officers of the Service in the Ashanti Region.

Ashanti Region has been a hotbed of fire fatalities following fire incidents at Asante-Mampong which claimed seven lives and another in which a mother her two daughters lost their lives. In the latest incident, a mason lost his life at South Suntreso in Kumasi on Wednesday night.

Dr Brown-Gaisie says the service is in the process of reconfiguring allocation of resources and logistics to fire stations across the country.

Before then, he wants personnel to be resolute in enforcing fire regulations as he warned of sanctions against officers found to have been compromised.

“The law gives us the power; it gives the Fire Service power to do so many things. I expect all of you to complement this effort to enforce it. We cannot allow individuals negligence to cause deaths, lives. No!" he said.

He charged those on the highways to do a lot of rescue education in collaboration with the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU).

"Talk to them about your expectations with the view of ensuring that, we achieve these objectives. I expect officers to be disciplined and to enforce and to perform above reproach," Dr Brown-Gaisie said.

He did not mince words in sounding a warning, "Those who we will be extorting money from individuals, compromising safety standards would be dealt with according to service regulations.” 

He said his administration would not countenance indiscipline and any counter-productive attitude of officers whose action cause loss of life and property.

“We should leave the comfort of our fire station; go to the field and ensure that we educate and improve the fire safety management of the people," he directed.

He advised officers of the Service to eschew the unnecessary rumor mongering, scandal-mongering, unproductive attitudes and focus on how to prevent the fires from occurring.

"The Fire Service of yesterday is different from the Fire Service of today as my administration does not countenance the lack of productivity," he told the gathering.

"Our duty is to ensure absolute public safety. It is a contract between Ghanaians, ourselves and the government. The protection of the citizenry as far as fire safety is a concern should be our priority,” Dr Brown-Gaisie reminded his officers.