10 fire officers sharing one jacket, one fire mask in the era of coronavirus

It has emerged that 10 fire officers are using one fire jacket for fire fighting activities even in the era of the Covid-19 outbreak.

Aside from this challenge that poses a serious health crisis for the firemen, the officers also use one nose fire mask for several officers in fire fighting situations.

Firemen are also under-resourced and struggling to manage fire outbreaks in the country.

These challenges came up during a fire fighting training exercise for the Young Adults Fellowship (YAF) at the Resurrection Congregation of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana.

The fire officer who wants to remain anonymous disclosed the serious challenges firemen have to go through in fighting for the country.

According to the officer, they need fire engines to fight fires in the country as compared to what they have today.

The officer noted that the majority of tankers they have in the country have the capacity of storing only 600 gallons of water although they need engines that could store more than 3000 gallons of water.

Some of the tankers the officer further revealed are not functioning properly and have become white elephants.

Also, the country have two hydraulic pumps but the firemen are unable to operate them.

Servicemen are now being trained to operate the pumps and it would take a year for them to finish the training before they would be able to operate the engines.

The officer further clarified that the country have three turntables with two in the Accra Region and one in Kumasi as compared to the two earlier published in the media.

There is only one tender in Ghana with 3000 gallons is being managed by Madina.

Three other engines with a capacity of 3000 are not functioning.

The rest of the tankers can only store 600 gallons of water.

The 3000 gallons capacity fire engines the officer added must be distributed based on the number of stations in the country.

Accra and Tema alone have over 78 fire stations meaning these two regions would need more fire engines to combat fire outbreaks.