The Ashanti Regional Minister’s Video and the Systemic Problem
I made a post about an explanation given by a PRO of the Ghana National Fire Service when a TV station asked him to comment on the rants of the Ashanti Regional Minister at the scene of the Adum market fire in Kumasi. I added a comment about the systemic failures–partly orchestrated by politicians and leaders– that make firefighting a problem in this country.
Many of you commented, asking why that explanation was not made when the minister asked. You asked me to watch the minister’s video.
I did watch the minister’s video, the one he shared on his Facebook page and asked that I be tagged and a longer version I saw on the YouTube channel of Zionfelix TV.
The minister’s video is a one-sided rant. A fire officer tries to explain, but the minister brushes him off, saying, “The explanations are too many.” That denies us the side of the firefighters.
Then, like chided children, we see some officials of the Fire Service pleadingly trying to calm the nerves of the outraged minister and his backing vocalists, one of whom is asking the minister to issue a query against the firefighters.
The minister is incensed that a fire tender stationed there has no water and is commanding the fire officers to take it away so that when at least they would know they (the fire officers) were not on site, for it’s useless to have a fire tender on the scene without water.
The minister says he had asked earlier and was told there was water in the fire tender, only to be told it didn’t have water. He is angry–perhaps justifiably so.
In his anger, he tells the firefighters that their attitude is because they have no properties in the burning market.
I do not hold brief for the fire officials and what they may have done wrong in that situation. I am not satisfied with how fire is fought in this country, and I don’t think the Ghana National Fire Service would be satisfied either. There have been similar instances in the past, but we went to sleep when the fires were killed or when they took the time they needed to complete their deadly missions.
However the minister’s video does not address the systemic problem I raised in my post about the failure of politicians and duty-bearers in problems we face with fires and the Fire Service.
The substance of the confusion in that video is about water. The questions I ask you, dear reader, are these:
Where is the nearest fire station to where you live? Where is the nearest water hydrant to your house or workplace? How many days in a week does water flow in your area?
If fire is mauling houses in your area and fire firefighters arrive in haste and exhaust the water they brought in their machines, what is the nearest location they would get water to fight the fire? How effective would they be if they were not stationed in your area did not know their way around? Even if they have to go somewhere and get water, how effective would that be to quelling the inferno, when every minute counts?
My concern is that we have failed as a nation to prepare for and provide for disasters. Were there water hydrants at the market, with water flowing everywhere, and the firefighters refused to fill their tenders?
Where I live outside Ghana, there are water hydrants everywhere. No system works perfectly, but at least when there’s a fire outbreak, firefighters would not need to call a minister and ask him to make calls and get help so that they have access to water.
Water is only one part of the equation. Our markets are not accessible, and we have no fire helicopters. If there’s a fire at a particular location in Kantamanto that a single fire tender could stop it without the fire spreading, the fire would likely spread and consume many more shops because there is no accessibility.
The leaders of our land–politicians and duty-bearers–who are supposed to enforce building codes and laws look away and allow citizens to do what they like. Even after the recent Kantamanto fires, we did not take steps to ensure sanity in the rebuilding of the market. We will wait for another disaster to strike. Having patronized Kantamanto many times, if a fire broke and I were in the market, I would struggle to find my way out. So, the disaster could be worse if it happens during the day.
But we seem not to care until another fire outbreak. Politicians would visit the site, make grand statements, console the victims, and we would return to our old ways.
The Fire Service is not adequately equipped to fight fires in most of the high-rise buildings in Ghana, but we do not seem to care. Prime locations like East Legon do not have fire stations, and this is normal.
Shouting does not quench fires. That may be harsh from a PRO, and some say it’s insulting to a minister of state. But equally harsh and, perhaps, insulting is telling firefighters that they are not responsive enough because their personal properties are not in the fire. Some of them lose their lives or get permanently maimed in the line of duty.
Until there is fire, we don’t realise their importance, and that says a lot about the resources we allocate to the institution. It says a lot about how we even perceive and treat them, for I wonder if the minister and his entourage would have ordered the officers the way he did if they had been members of the Ghana Armed Forces.
Until we pay attention to the root of the problem, we shall be back here if the next fire breaks in another market.
Source:Mybrytfmonline.com
