Fire officers visited fire scene in taxi cab – Interior Minister

Interior Minister Ambrose Dery has admitted that Fire Service Officers in Akyem Begoro recently had to convey fire extinguishers, and travel in a taxi cab to put out fire.

He said the tender to be used was out of commission.

“The Fire Service Officers went to the fire scene in a taxi cab with fire extinguishers to put out the fire because at the time of the incident, the station water tender number FS706 was temporarily out of commission,” the Interior Minister told Parliament in Accra on Thursday.

The Minister gave the explanation in answer to a question by Mr Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor, MP for South Dayi who wanted to know the circumstances under which Fire Service officers in Akyem Begoro travelled in a taxi with fire extinguishers to put out fire.

The Minister said: “On Thursday 27th May, 2021 at 1025 hours, a distress call was received at the Begoro Fire Station reporting an outbreak of fire at Bethlehem, a suburb of Akyem Begoro invoking a single room apartment.”

Mr Dery said fire officers responded to the call, and a seven member crew was dispatched to the fire scene in a taxi cab, since the station’s water tender was temporarily out of commission.

According to the Minister, the crew got to the scene ad used four 6kg Dry Chemical Powder fire extinguishers and buckets of water from members in the community to douse the fire and to prevent it from further spreading to adjoining buildings.

The Bunso Fire Station, he said, was called in as a stop gap measure, but when the crew got to the scene, people in the community had already brought the fire under control.

Source: GNA