The management of Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) has given assurance that by June this year, all obsolete fire tenders in possession of the service would be replaced with some state-of-the-art fire tenders to bolster the activities of fire fighting in the country.
The Public Relations Officer (PRO) of GNFS, Assistant Chief Fire Officer Timothy Osafo Affum, gave this assurance while speaking on some of the challenges confronting the service in an interview with the host of the Ghana Yensom morning show, Odeyeeba Kofi Essuman on Accra 100.5 FM on Friday, January 20, 2023.
He said the government over the years has helped to get a partner who has taken all the specifications for the procurement of new fire tenders for the service.
He added that all the needed agreements have been signed for the fire tenders to arrive in the country by June this year.
According to him, the specification had been given to the partner because fire tenders are not sold in the open markets like ordinary cars.
“These are equipment that are country-specific so all these considerations had to be made when it comes to procurement of such equipment,” he explained.
He said the existing tenders in possession of the service are more than 10 years old which is not supposed to be the case.
“Ideally, a fire tender should not be in use for more than five years,” he added.
He revealed that there are about 209 fire stations across the country with only 200 fire tenders.
He added that the situation is so because some of the tenders have broken down and others are obsolete.
He corrected the notion that the police and military are favoured when it is time to equip the security services.
He added that this notion cannot be the reality because one fire tender can procure several vehicles for the police and military.
“So when tenders numbering about 100 are procured for the fire service it comes with a huge cost because tenders are quite expensive and country-specific.”
He commended the government for the measures it is making to equip the fire service administration to live to the expectations of the general public.