243 cases relating to fire has been recorded in the New Year according to the Ghana Fire Service.

Ghana suffered a loss of about ¢19m to fire outbreak between the month of January and September 2019 with the detriment as a result of 4,476 fire outbreaks that were recorded within the period with 271 lives claimed and 1,714 persons left with varying degrees of injury.

The Ashanti Region topped the chart of fire outbreaks with 878 incidents trailed by Greater Accra on second with 762 cases. The Region with the least cases of fire was the North East Region with 18 fire outbreaks.

It’s the eight day in the New Year and fire incidents chronicled by the Fire Service is shattering. The Assistabt Station Officer at the Service, Michael Walker Oti speaking on Joy News’ The Pulse on Tuesday, disclosed that the public’s reluctance to adhere to safety measures provided by the service against fires has been a major challenge the Service has been battling with.

“We sometimes take safety as a nine-day wonder, meanwhile safety is supposed to be a culture: safety is a way of life, so we don’t practice it today and forget about it tomorrow,” he said.

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Ashanti Region tops chart of fire outbreaks with 878 incidents

He addressed and educated that fire incidents reports conveyed to the various radio stations sometimes makes their work ill timed due to the weight media men pour on them with other misinforming the service.

"This morning I was on a sister station when these fires occurred. Instead of calling the fire service they called on the FM station. That was how the case was reported,” he said and further explained that such reports cause a lot of inconvenience for them as firemen.

He stated that the fires occurred between the period 24th December to 3rd January and covered reports from across the country.