Any fire outbreak within the northern region will wreak untold havoc because there are no fire hydrants to replenish their water reserves in case of a fire.
Safety Commander ADO1 Gilbert Balonia Adda tells rawgist.com the Ghana National Fire Service has only one functioning hydrant out of 27 in the Tamale metropolis.
He explains that the situation can be said to be critical and urgent government intervention is required to salvage the situation.
“We have only one in good shape, and we mostly depend on institutions”, he explained.
Meanwhile, the service has conducted an unannounced safety audit in some institutions within the region. Over 70 percent of institutions were found to be operating without fire certificates.
The safety commander was unhappy that “various institutions are putting their workers, clients and the facility at risk to the extent that there are no safety measures in place in case of a fire outbreak.” He added that many of the hotels within the Northern region had no emergency exits.
He also lamented the numerous speed ramps in the municipality; a situation he says slows down their movements to accident locations and appealed to the Ghana Highway Authority to drastically reduce the number of speed ramps in the region to enable faster movement of fire personnel in times of emergencies.
