The Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) has urged service providers to invest in building the capacity of their members in the field of risk assessment to compliment the work of the service to reduce fire outbreaks.

The service also appealed to service providers to support fire safety education programmes as done in other countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States of America for fire safety across the country.

This was contained in a statement signed by Ellis Robinson Okoe, Acting Head of Public Relations, GNFS, and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra at a meeting with the fire protection service providers association.

The meeting chaired by Dr Albert Brown Gaisie, the Chief Fire Officer, was attended by representatives of 40 companies and was to deliberate on challenges faced by the service providers and chart the way forward.

Dr Gaisie expressed concern about how some service providers managed to obtain fire certificates without recourse to principles and procedures as required by the service and urged them to ensure that their operations conforms to fire service standards.

He expressed worry about the unprofessional attitude of some serving fire officers who engage in shoddy work and appealed to management to help in checking such recalcitrant officers.

Dr Gaisie assured the service providers management support adding that the current fire safety precaution regulations, 2003 is being reviewed and that their input would be considered to make the document workable.