The National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) and five other organisations have begun what they call a ‘fire audit’ exercise in some major markets in the Greater Accra Region to identify possible hazards that are likely to cause fire outbreaks. The exercise, which is being undertaken with the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), Ghana Police Service, City Guards and representatives from assemblies in the metropolis, is aimed at preventing fire outbreaks in the markets. The Greater Accra Co-ordinator of NADMO, Mr Ben Brown, made this known to the Daily Graphic yesterday. The move is as a result of the rampant fire outbreaks in markets and other places. The Kantamanto Market, for instance, recorded its second fire outbreak in two years on Monday night. The Makola Market had also experienced a number of fire outbreaks that have destroyed goods worth millions of cedis over the years and last July fire gutted a warehouse, a hairdressing salon, an Internet cafe and a Benz cargo truck at Adabraka in Accra. Mr Brown said the fire audit exercise had been carried out at Tudu and was currently being carried out at the Makola Market. From Makola, he said, the team involved in the programme would move to the Kaneshie Market, and subsequently to the other markets in the metropolis. He said the exercise involved the examination of electrical wiring to find out how old the wires were and whether or not they had been truncated. ‘We also check the kind of gadgets that are used in the markets,” he said, adding that “when we check and the right thing is not done, the ECG would remove the meter till the right thing is done”. Mr Brown who deplored the way and manner some electrical connections were done in markets and said such connections were responsible for fire outbreaks, hence the need to prevent them. On the Monday night fire outbreak at the Kantamanto Market, he said NADMO had begun assessing the extent of damage to goods and other property to ascertain their actual cost, adding that “this would take three days”. In addition, he said, there would be counselling of the victims to let them know the kind of interventions that were there from government agencies, banks and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to help bring their (victims) lives back to normalcy. Mr Brown said the sole responsibility of reconstructing the market rested with the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), and that the responsibility of NADMO was to partner the Assembly to ensure ‘sustainable development’ of the markets. Sustainable development, he said, included ensuring access roads through the market, a clinic to meet the health needs of the traders and provision of potable water and a crèche. “Once that is done, we would be able to meet the needs of people yet unborn, among other things,” he stated. In a related development, the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) has expressed concern about comments made by some eyewitnesses on some media networks to the effect that the first fire engine to respond to the incident at Kantamanto, did so without water. “Management is worried over the constant and persistent peddling of false information by some victims of fire disasters. Such falsehoods do not only soil and bring the name of the service into disrepute, but also bring down the morale of firefighters who, in spite of inadequate logistics and personal protection, put their lives on the line to ensure the safety of both lives and property,” a statement signed by D.O. III Timothy Osafo-Affum said. According to the statement, the service had consistently informed the public that its fire engines had capacities of 1,000 and 1,200 gallons of water, which could be expelled between two and five minutes depending on the intensity of the fire. It said the problem of the fire service had been the unavailability of flowing fire hydrants in the country, and that “until this problem is fixed and proper layouts for easy accessibility put in place, the current situation where fire [engines] have had to move from accident scenes within a twinkle of an eye in search of water will continue to be with us for a long time”. “We want to assure the public that investigations are underway to find the cause of fire (at Kantamanto) and to come out with comprehensive measures to curb future occurrences,” the statement said. Story by Emmanuel Bonney/Daily Graphic