The Ghana Fire Service has revealed there was no water running through the fire hydrants around the site of the Labadi gas explosion on Thursday evening.
Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show, the Director of Public Affairs, Billy Anaglate said this forced the fire trucks to move all the way to Makola in Accra to refill the fire trucks to put the fire out.
It ultimately took the fire service about four hours to bring the fire under control after arriving on the scene a few minute before 6pm.
Mr. Anaglate hailed the fire firefighters effectiveness in keeping the fire under control despite the challenge with the hydrants and water.
“Because of the contingency plan we put in place, even with the biggest challenge of not having water readily available passing through the hydrant for firefighting, meaning we even needed to move our vehicles when they were exhausted with water to travel all the way Makola to replenish… we were able to fight the fire to extinguish it at that shortest possible time of even four hours or five hours.”
“There were fire hydrants within the Trade Faire and around the area but water was not passing through, if you have a hydrant and water company has not released water to pass through it, there is no way you will be able to access it.”
He added that the Fire Service had a hydrant recovery team doing its best to keep track and “inspect and make sure they [the hydrants] are available but the next thing is for the water company to release water to them.”
No need for blame game
The Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) however accused the fire service of playing a blame game and picking on water providers as an easy target in the wake of the incident.
Also speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show, the Public Relations Office of the GWCL, Stanley Martey said “it is not proper at this time to be laying blame and I think that it is high time the fire service stopped blaming the Ghana water company limited anytime they fail in their responsibilities.”
“The softest area to blame is the Ghana Water Company limited and I think it is wrong. I think it is very bad. We have discussed this issue several times and the Fire Service is always quick to lay blame on water not being in the hydrant.”
Mr. Martey also questioned why service resorted to a hydrant in Makola when it had a hydrant at headquarters closer to the scene of the fire.
“The Ghana National fire service has a hydrant in this head office at the ring road and they are supposed to be fetching water on there all the time. Why are they saying they had to go all the way to Makola?”
“So I don’t think they are justified in giving that excuse and it is the easy way for them to do that all the time and I think it is very wrong,” Mr. Martey asserted.
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(Via: CitiFM Online Ghana)
