The Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) and has stressed the urgent need for government to permit the recruitment of more personnel according to Dr. Albert Brown Gaisie, Chief Fire Officer.

He said the limited number of personnel at some fire stations in the country, especially in the rural areas, was a major challenge for the service to adequately fight fire outbreaks in those areas.

Interacting with personnel at the Dunkwa-on-Offin fire station as part of a duty tour of the Central Region, Dr. Gaisie said the GNFS currently had about 7,000 fire personnel, indicating a fire citizenry ratio of 3,000 citizens to one fire officer.

The ratio, he said, was not up to the internationally accepted ratio of one fire officer to 800 citizens.

He expressed worry that the situation would get worse in a few years since a significant percentage of the total number of personnel is nearing retirement, stressing that, “ we need more fire personnel to fill the gap created to support the little that we have”.

The four-day tour of the region was to enable the CFO to acquaint himself with the situation at the various stations to identify the problems facing them.

Dr. Gaisie observed that aside personnel, some fire stations in rural areas lacked certain basic logistics which often made it difficult for fire personnel to work efficiently, and, therefore, urged the MMDCEs and corporate institutions to support the Service.

He indicated that ensuring fire safety was a collective responsibility, and therefore all stakeholders must work hard to ensure that every individual had a full understanding of fire safety and prevention, adding that it was time “we all become conscious of fire safety for economic growth”.

Dr. Gaisie admonished firemen and women to intensify their education to make the citizenry understand the need to ensure fire safety at homes, churches, workplaces and other places of social gathering, and added that having enough logistics was not a guarantee that there would be no fires and that it was good to prevent them.

He advised the personnel to desist from engaging in activities that would endanger their health and also go for regular check-ups to ensure that they were fit to fight fires.

The CFO also asked them not to do things that would tarnish the image of the service, but exhibit a high sense of professionalism.