Stop The Annual Ritual Of Bush Burning In Obuasi Communities ---Obuasi Fire Commander Cautions Public
While sounding a note of warning, the Senior fire officer reminded residents that harmattan season is usually characterised by dryness of the environment, leaves and every object, material, including human, which makes it very easy for fire to spread at every given opportunity.
Freeman Koryekpor 
The Obuasi Municipal Fire Commander of Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), Mr Emmanuel Afoakwa,has decried the spate of bush burning by Obuasi residents,especially as the harmattan sets in.
While sounding a note of warning, the Senior fire officer reminded residents that harmattan season is usually characterised by dryness of the environment, leaves and every object, material, including human, which makes it very easy for fire to spread at every given opportunity.
In an interview with journalists when they paid a courtesy visit to him in his office on Thursday January 5, 2022, the Obuasi Municipal Fire Commander said the warning had become necessary owing to dangers posed by fire outbreak during harmattan.
Mr Afoakwa,recounted the losses the Obuasi Municipal had borne in the past years as a result of uncontrolled, indiscriminate burning of bushes and refuse dumps.
He reiterated that the power network spans through, bushes, forests, neighbourhoods, farmlands, stressing that any form of burning if uncontrolled could lead to a fire outbreak which may damage transformers, feeder pillar units, and the lines with their associated accessories, in addition to loss of lives, loss of electricity supply and other properties.
“We have discovered that during harmattan season hunters deploys fire to drive bush animals out of their hiding places for easy catch or kill while some might be to enable farmers prepare such lands for the next farming season.
“Whatever may be the intention behind bush burning, it is advised that such fires are controlled so they do not escalate to unintended locations or areas,” the Obuasi Municipal Fire Commander warned residents.
To this end, he advised the general public to be cautious in their homes and must be vigilant in their homes gadgets and other electrical objects that could cause fire outbreak this harmattan season.
The senior fire officer further stressed the need for farmers to be vigilant when they send fire to the bush.
He disclosed that the total number of fire outbreak within Obuasi Municipalities as at 2021 has come down due to effective public education.
He attributed some few challenges to fuel and road access and therefore urged government and other NGOs to support them with fuel to make the Tender move regularly anytime there is fire outbreak in the municipality.
