The Upper West Regional Com­mand of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) has attributed the rise in cases of fire outbreaks in the region to the carelessness and negligence of residents and organisations to adhere to fire safety rules.

According to Upper West Regional Commander of the GNFS, Assistant Chief Fire Officer II (ACFOII) Isaac Kofi Obosu despite the numerous door–to–door sensitisation on fire safety by the Command, fire cases this year surpassed the figure for last year.

He said the region recorded a total of 116 fire incidents from January to date alone, as against 106 cases of similar fire outbreaks last year representing a 9.43 percent increment.

ACFO II Obosu further said the situation has led to the loss of property estimated at GH¢1,074,357 whereas the Service was able to salvage an estimate of GH¢1,025,224 items from getting de­stroyed by fires this year.

“Most of the fire cases recorded this year was as a result of negligence to fire safety measures by victims, people are throwing garbage, cigarette butts and mishandling flammable materials anywhere without thinking of the consequences," he said.

The Regional Fire Service Commander was speaking to the Ghanaian Times in an exclusive interview on cases of fire outbreaks in the region from last year to date.

“Negligence in fire protection should be taken seriously and avoided at all costs by ensuring regular maintenance and inspec­tion of fire protection systems, we are always on the lookout for some of these things, and what we normally do is to edu­cate the general public in whatever means or form,” he said.

The Upper West Region Fire Command­er mentioned carelessness and ignorance while handling electric power appliances as some of the causes of the fires in the region.

"We go to the mosques, we go to the churches, lorry parks and market places to spread the gospel of fire safety but resi­dents and organisations are just reluctant irrespective of whatever you tell them, they do what they feel is right,” he lamented.

According to ACFO II Obosu, almost all the fire incidents that occurred in the region were preventable if only people adhered to the fire safety protocols.

Fire safety, he said was a shared respon­sibility and called on the public to coop­erate with the Command to carry out its mandate to reduce the occurrences of fire outbreaks in the region.

ACFO II Obosu encouraged various institutions to work with the GNFS when putting up structures to ensure they were fire-compliant to prevent fire outbreaks.

He said the Command would con­tinue to create and sustain awareness of the public on fire prevention and safety measures and implored residents to be abreast with all the emergency numbers and also visit the nearest fire station within their locality to get their direct emergency numbers.

He has, therefore, called on all to join hands with the GNFS and also observe ba­sic safety fire preventive measures to help reduce fire incidents in the region.