News:
August 1, 2017
Former Central Regional Minister, George Kweku Rickett-Hagan says the fire that gutted the 10th floor of Job 600 offices of Members of Parliament is a wakeup call for the country to equip the Ghana National Fire Service with 21st century fire fighting equipment.
Speaking in an interview with Ghanamps.com, he further noted that, efforts should be made to acquire modern fire fighting equipment to battle fire outbreak in high rising buildings like Job 600 and hotels in the capital with high rising buildings.
Probably if there was a helicopter the fire outbreak in Parliament could have been tackled right from the top. “I do not understand why we have a fire post in Parliament but it took them that long to come to our aid”, he said
“We should be able to shorten the time we deal with such emergency in this country, the fire that happened in this House, we thank God that nobody was harmed”.
According to the Cape Coast South legislator, the fire alarm system should be worked on in Parliament, as the last outbreak of fire he did not hear anything and same applies to most of his colleagues who were in their offices.
Again we should have a converging point when the fire alarm goes off , “we can assemble and a system put in place for us to know how many people are in the building at a particular point in time”, he said.
Also a fire warden is needed in the job 600 building so that at a point of evacuation they will be able to say Mr. A B C are still trap in the building, then the fire service will have an idea of people to look out for.
He further explained that there is the need for a register on each floor of job 600 so that someone will be able to tick that Honorable MP A or B is in the building left the building. But was quick to add that the list will not be used for any mischievous purpose, but purposely that in the event of safety and security.
As to whether MPs have been trained to handle fire extinguishers, the Cape Coast South MP says no.
By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com