The volunteer fire fighters who were taken through a one-week training programme came from Doryumu, Jokpanya, Kodiabe and other satellite communities in the district.

In a speech at the passing out ceremony, which also coincided with the launch of the 2018-2019 bushfire prevention campaign at Doryumu yesterday, the Tema Regional Fire Service Commander, Assistant Chief Fire Officer (ACFO) Mrs Frances Rockson, said the programme formed part of efforts to boost vegetation growth and curb environmental degradation.

She explained that the purpose of training the fire volunteers was to help prevent the area's vegetation from being destroyed by fire.

Bush fires

Mrs Rockson said in 2017 and 2018, the Tema Region recorded 26 and 43 incidents of bush fires, representing 6.3 per cent and 9.4 per cent, respectively, of the total fire outbreaks in the region, adding that those fires resulted in the destruction and loss of property and millions of cedis, hence the need for all to help curb the menace.

She expressed the hope that with the training of the fire fighters and support from the community members, the vegetation cover in the community would improve in a short while.

Community sensitisation

The Shai-Osudoku District Chief Executive, Mr Daniel Akuffo, commended the GNFS for the training and said the assembly would support the initiative by empowering traditional authorities and community leaders to educate the people and sensitise them to negative effects of bush fires in the area.

He said the assembly could no longer continue to ignore the staggering destruction of goods, forest reserves, buildings, food barns and other natural resources through rampant bush fires and admonished the volunteers to educate the people on the need to refrain from causing bush fires which destroyed the environment.

Appeal

The Chief of Doryumu, Lanimo Adjartey Konor II, entreated the fire volunteers to take their work seriously and work diligently to prevent the rampant bush fires in the area.

He appealed to the GNFS to provide the Doryumu Community with a fire station as the distance from Doryumu to Dodowa, the district capital, where the nearest fire station is located 12 miles away while the distance from Dodowa to Osuwem, another major community in the district, is 26 miles.

The chief stated that the presence of a fire station in the Doryumu community will help create fire safety awareness and make it easy for the community to contact the service in times of emergency.