A five-member committee has been set up by the Fire Service Council to investigate the circumstances leading to the death of a fire officer during a simulation exercise at the Cedi House in Accra last Thursday. The committee comprises a representative each from the Ghana Armed Forces, the Ghana Police Service and the Fire Service Council. Others are a fire service officer and a secretary to the committee. The committee begins work immediately, and has 10 working days to submit its report to the council, according to the Head of the Public Relations Unit of the Ghana National Fire Service, Mr Sam Sowah Oblejumah. "The committee would investigate circumstances leading to the accident. It is to find out whether personnel undertaking the simulation did safety checks and then come up with recommendations to forestall any future accidents," he said Mr Oblejumah told the Daily Graphic yesterday that delegations from the Fire Service Council, management of the Ghana National Fire Service and the Ministry of Interior visited the bereaved family yesterday. A simulation fire-fighting exercise undertaken by personnel of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) on the Cedi House tower last Thursday morning turned disastrous when a female fire officer fell from the high-rise building during the exercise. The officer, identified as Deputy Group Officer Hannah Yawson Ayeh, was immediately rushed to the 37 Military Hospital, where she passed away the next day. Hannah was being 'rescued' from the fifth floor of the 13-storey building using what fire officials described as the "Knot Chair" technique whereby an unconscious person trapped in a fire situation on a high-rise facility is put in a chair on which a rope is tied and then lowered through a window to safety. She was due to write a promotion examination last Saturday to the rank of Group Officer before the tragic incident, and like all other fire personnel, Hannah, described as an active, smart and dedicated fire officer, was yet to be paid her enhanced salary for the month of August under the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS). An instructor in that fire rescue technique, Hannah had been training fire personnel on the use of a line (rope) for rescue operations for the past 12 years. As a sportswoman, especially as a footballer and referee, the talented fire officer was said to have attempted a safe landing to rescue her own life, but the intense gravitational force and the concrete ground were not helpful in her mission. Source: Daily Graphic