Interior Minister Hon. Muntaka Mohammed-Mubarak has announced that the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) will soon receive new firefighting equipment as part of efforts to make the service attend to emergencies across the country.
The Asawase Member of Parliament noted that the GNFS is one of the state agencies earmarked to be retooled by the government.
Hon. Muntaka Mohammed-Mubarak acknowledged the operational difficulty confronting the service and its impact on dealing with fire outbreaks.
The minister made the remarks when he appeared before Parliament on Tuesday, March 18, 2025, to respond to urgent questions filed by MPs.
The Ghana National Fire Service currently has 247 fire appliances that they use in dealing with fire outbreaks across the country.
Out of the figure, the minister says 199 are in commission, with 48 of them damaged and being repaired.
He also disclosed that the GNFS currently has a total workforce of 17,514 personnel deployed to the various regions across the country to perform various operational duties.
‘’However, the service lacks adequate and required modern firefighting logistics to confront fire outbreaks, as you can attest to recent fire outbreaks in several markets throughout the country. To address the situation, the Ministry of Interior has earmarked the Ghana National Service as one of the state institutions to be retooled. Efforts would be put in place to replace all the old fire tenders with state-of-the-art multipurpose fire tenders,’’ he announced.
When asked to disclose the exact timeline for the purchase of the new tenders, he stated that his ministry was currently in talks with the finance ministry about making allocations; thus, it would be difficult to provide a timeline for when the new tenders would be brought in.
He said some of the fire tenders are over 50 years old and need to be replaced.
‘’We are currently in talks with the finance minister to see how allocations could be made, so it would be very difficult to give a timeline as to when we can say specifically, by this date, we will have the first new fire tender coming in. So we are currently in talks with the finance minister for him to appreciate that the newest fire tender we have is over fifty years old, and definitely we need to retool the fire service.’’
He lamented the rising rate of outbreaks, with 50 fires reported across the country between October 2024 and February 2025, emphasising the need for the finance minister to allocate funds for the purchase of new equipment.
The minister added that the finance minister is hopeful that something can be done during the midyear budget review because there is no room for purchases this quarter and that the interior ministry’s budget does not include funds for the purchase of new equipment.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
