Assistant Division Officer One (ADO 1) Ruth Mensah-Tandoh, the Regional Public Relations Officer of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), made the appeal in an interview with the Ghana News Agency on Tuesday in Sunyani.    

She said field training, personal protective equipment, encouragement and incentive packages were essential needs for the volunteers.ADO1 Mensah-Tandoh applauded fire volunteers nationwide for their hard work, saying, their enthusiasm had been of great help to the GNFS since they entered and put out fires at places where the fire tender could not go, hence, the need to motivate them, she added.

ADO1 Mensah-Tandoh said the Regional Fire Command had experienced more than 100 per cent rise in fire cases in the region within a period of five months-January to May this year, which is comparatively more than the whole of last year.

The high deference, according to her was as a result of increase in bush and domestic fires.

ADO 1 Mensah-Tandoh indicated that bush and domestic fire records were 188 and 119 respectively from January and May totalling 307, whiles the total fire case within the same period last year was 284 which point to a sharp increase this year.

She said vehicular fires recorded in the same period in the region were 28 as against 23 in 2017 while others including electricity, commercial and industrial fires were 52 cases.  ADO 1 Mensah-Tandoh attributed the sharp rise of the fire cases to the severity of the dry season at the beginning of year.