The Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has commissioned a Fire Academy and Training School at Duayaw Nkwanta in the Tano North Municipality in the Ahafo Region.
The training school, which is the third in the country after the ones in James Town in Accra and Wungu in the North East Region, comprises a three-storey administration block, male and female dormitories, classrooms, a dining hall and a canteen.
The Vice President expressed the government’s commitment and readiness to resourcing the Ghana National Fire Service to achieve its mandate of combating fire outbreaks.
He noted that the commissioning of the training school was a milestone that reflected the government’s promise to increase the number of Fire Training Schools in the country from one to four, and resource and retool the fire service to improve its work and perform effectively and efficiently.
Dr. Bawumia expressed profound gratitude to the Chief of Ahafo for donating land for the construction of the fire training school, which is now a national asset.
He also commended the Ghana National Fire Service for its good work and urged it to intensify fire safety education to reduce fire outbreaks.
Meanwhile, the Ghana National Fire Service has noted that the number of fire outbreaks in the country is gradually declining as 2023 data prove a significant reduction in fire cases.
According to the Chief Fire Officer (CFO) of GNFS, Julius Kuunuor, fire outbreaks declined by 4.92 per cent for the first eleven months of 2023 as the service recorded 5,256 fire outbreaks as compared to 5,530 recorded in the same period in 2022.
He noted this was due to the extensive public fire safety education carried out nationwide.