Browsing by Author "Lartey, Hoffmanx Edward"

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    Regional Headquarters Ghana National Fire Service - Kumasi
    (2012) Lartey, Hoffmanx Edward
    The National Fire Service has for a considerable length of time now been under fire; both rightly or wrongly; mainly for laxity and inefficiency. The result of these accusations is a loss of confidence in and isolation of the fireman. This is because:- i) They cannot respond promptly to any distress call that is on the assumption that some patriotic citizen manages to get through on the telephone or call at the station personally. ii) Sometimes they don’t have enough water in the Fire Tenders (Engines) to fight fire. iii) They cannot find the location of hydrants (if there are any) in any area in distress. Out of concern that a permanent or even just prolonged loss of public confidence in the Fire Service could be detrimental to peace and stability in society and bearing in mind my position as a student architect, I decided to take a closer look at the situation. Two things which came out of my study are that:- i) Both the public and the fire service have a case. ii) There is an urgent need to savage the dignity of the Fireman from its present doldrums; while the moral aspect of this exercise must come from within the fireman himself, the architect can help in a self-satisfying way by providing for the fireman surroundings befitting the dignity he must possess and preserve. The greatest impediment that came my way was the fact that both the Fire Service Headquarters in Kumasi (where the study is based, as the second largest city in Ghana) and the Administrative Headquarters in Accra don’t have any library, archives or any written brochure or document about i) Their history: ii) Their present development and progress. This I had to find out by “word of mouth” through interviews (with cross checks) of a number of Firemen both in Kumasi and Accra. I obtained lot information through this. In the matter of the people’s right to the services of an efficient fire service, my word to the Ghanaian public; especially those in authority; is that to every right is attached a responsibility, and whoever shirks his responsibility is denied the right thereof.