A Senior Lecturer at the School of Public Health, the University of Health and Allied Sciences, Dr. Ishmael Norman has stated that often, Ghanaians trivialise issues of fire safety due to their trust in God.

“We noticed that Ghanaians don’t care about fire safety and emergencies. They basically leave their trust in God. So even though the rules are very clear, they don’t abide by them,” he said on the Super Morning Show on Tuesday, January 25, 2022.

Discussions on Tuesday’s edition of the Super Morning Show centered on fire safety following the outcome of research which revealed that in every 20 seconds, there is a fire outbreak recorded in the country.

According to the Director of Public Relations at the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), ACFO Timothy Osafo-Affum, who was also on the show, most of these fires are preventable. However, negligence on the part of individuals continues to increase the incidents of fires recorded in the country.

He also bemoaned the fact that Ghanaians are not receptive to fire officers who are tasked to sensitise various institutions and stated that until this attitude is changed, the situation cannot be averted.

“A lot of these fires are preventable but continue to occur year after year leading to loss of lives and property. We go on fire safety education and you don’t have people to attend to you. You go to institutions and they only bring in the security personnel for training,” he lamented.