Mr. Douglas Koyiri, Deputy Regional Fire Officer of the Ghana National Fire Service on Tuesday condemned the sale of petroleum products, particularly petrol along all the principal streets of Wa.
He said the practice was not only dangerous to both lives and property, but was also creating unacceptable attitudes that could undermine the laws and regulations of the state.
Mr. Koyiri who was speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on the vending of the products said although his outfit had the mandate to regulate such practices, lack of funding was impeding their progress.
The Fire Officer who described the products as "hazardous chemicals " said it was difficult to get rid of the activity within a day as it served as a livelihood to the vendors and their families.
"All we need to do now is to step up educational programmes on the dangers of the activity, because they need a lot of enlightenment to appreciate the dangers before they can withdraw from the trade".
Mr. Koyiri appealed to the government to consider recapitalizing the Ghana National Fire Service to effectively carry out their mandate of preventing, fighting fire effectively, and educating people against the dangers of fire outbreak among other responsibilities.
He also appealed to all stakeholders in the fight against fire disasters to live up to their responsibilities to avert any fire disaster in future.
"We cannot achieve our main goals of preventing and fighting fire effectively without the cooperation of the people and societies that we deal with, and I will like to appeal to both vendors and the people in general to educate each other against the practice," Mr. Koyiri said.