The Ashanti Region has topped the chart of fire outbreaks with 878 incidents according to the Ghana National Fire Service

Ghana has lost about ¢19m to fire outbreak between the month of January and September.

The detriment is as a result of 4,476 fire outbreaks that were recorded in the country within the period with 271 lives claimed and 1,714 persons left with varying degrees of injury.

The Greater Accra is second with 762 cases whiles the Region with the least cases of fire was the North East Region with 18 fire outbreaks.

The Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the GNFS Divisional Officer II Mr Ellis Robinson Okoe made this known in an interview with the Daily Graphic attributing the situation to people and companies’ failure to pay attention to fire safety rules.

“People are only eager to do business and do not pay attention to safety requirements. Rather than get electricity properly connected, they instead do illegal connections which are likely to result in fire,” Mr Okoe explained.

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“Others also cook their daily meals in their shops and sometimes they mistakenly leave the fire without putting it off when leaving for home. Later, this fire comes into contact with combustible materials and a blaze is started which then spreads,” he added.

He cautioned companies and shops to ensure that all gadgets and switches are turned off before leaving for the Christmas break.

“All companies, if possible, should have safety officers who must check every corner to ensure that all was safe,” the PRO said

Mr Okoe finally urged people to stop using the radio stations as a means of sending them information about fire outbreaks, saying that “it may be that personnel at the Fire Master Control Room may not be listening to radio at that moment and so such means could delay the time the service would get to the scene of the incident.”