A day's seminar on procedures involved in
acquiring land for use as filling stations, and safety precautionary measures needed for fighting fire outbreaks at fuel stations has been held
for fuel service station owners, managers and attendants in the Brong-Ahafo Region.
The seminar, the first of its kind in the region, comes in the wake of frequent fire outbreaks at fuel and gas filling stations in the country.
In his welcoming address, the Brong-Ahafo Regional Fire Officer, Divisional Officer Grade One (DO1) Paul Opoku, noted that the series of fire explosion in parts of the country at fuel/gas filling stations posed a challenge to the National Fire Service.
He stated that after the incidence of gas leakages in the Sunyani Municipality, and the burning of petrol tankers at the outskirts of Techiman and Atebubu a few months ago, it had become necessary for the Ghana National
Fire Service to be on guard and alert.
The Regional Fire Officer said during the first quarter, 123 cases of fire outbreak were recorded, which included domestic, industrial, vehicular, electrical and bushfires, doing damage to property estimated at about GHC207, 618.00.
He added that 38 people sustained various degrees of injuries, whilst five people lost their lives.
DO1 Paul Opoku said a task force would occasionally undertake inspection exercises at the various stations to ascertain whether the
directions and instructions given to them were being heeded.
He urged them to build a fence wall around their stations in order to prevent the extension of fire to nearby apartments any time there was an
explosion.
Making a presentation on fire precautionary safety measures for the installation of LPG gas pump and tank for re-fuelling vehicles, Station
Officer Bright Ahiabley, urged them to site the LPG installation in the plane of wind direction so that in case of a leakage it could be controlled.
He appealed to them to institute measures to prevent the accumulation of combustible liquids under the LPG container.