The Bureau of Public Safety (BPS) has asked the government to publish all outstanding reports it has received from investigations on fire outbreaks in markets across the country to help deal with the reoccurrence of the market fires.
According to the Bureau, the publication of these reports will provide adequate information on how to decisively deal with the incessant outbreaks of fire.
In the past few days, four fire incidents have been recorded in Kumasi alone. The first one occurred on Friday night, the second one on Saturday night and the third one on Sunday night at various markets within the metropolis.
The fourth one occurred on Monday morning when fire destroyed portions of the Grace Chapel of the Calvary Charismatic Center in the same metropolis.
Executive Director of the Bureau, Nana Yaw Akwadaa, in an interview with Citi News, said Ghanaians must know the content of such reports to determine whether successive governments have truly implemented the recommendations to curb such fire outbreaks or not.
“Let government publish all reports it has received since 2012 at the peak of market fires. Let the government publish the investigations done by the FBI and the Ghana National Fire Service so that we can all read through the report to see where we got it wrong and what duty bearers must do. If the government has anything meaningful to do, it should begin by publishing the investigation reports they received in 2012- therein lies the answers to these market fires.â€
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In 2013, a team of investigators including American experts looked into the curious case of rampant market fires, but the report was never made public.
Asafo Market needs immediate reconstruction
The Director General of the National Disaster Management Organisation, NADMO Eric Nana Agyeman Prempeh says the Asafo Market in Kumasi needs to be reconstructed following the continuous fire outbreaks recorded in the market.
Four different fire outbreaks have occurred in Kumasi between Friday, April 19 to Monday, April 22, 2019.
In an interview with Joy News, Director General of NADMO Eric Nana Agyeman Prempeh said preliminary investigations revealed that the Asafo market, which is part of the four fire outbreaks, needs to be reconstructed to avert any future disaster.
''We have done the search and rescue part of it, we are in the process of assessment, I have been around my technical people have been round, the mayor and his team have been round. What I can say is that the market needs to be reconstructed, and it should be immediate. Looking at what is happening if we are not careful we are going to experience what happened at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle, the twin disaster of fire and water here in Asafo''.
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