Personnel of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) Friday evening prevented fire in a parked fuel tanker at a waiting area in front of the Bulk Oil Storage and Transport (BOST) depot at Buipe in the Savannah Region from spreading to the main storage facility of the company.
However, the fire affected three other tankers which were all parked at the waiting area to be refilled.
No casualty
No deaths were recorded but three people sustained injuries.
Two of the injured were sent to the Buipe Clinic for treatment and are on admission while the third person was transported to the Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH).
The Savannah Regional Fire Officer (RFO), Mr Kwasi Baffour Awuah, said they (GNFS) received a distress call around 7:19 pm on Friday, January 3, this year and by 7:25pm, fire fighters were already at the scene.
He said his men were able to extinguish the fire around 11:09 pm, noting that they were able to prevent the fire from spreading to the BOST main depot.
“The fire fighters were able to bring the fire under control at about 10:31pm and finally got it extinguished around 11:09pm,” Mr Kwasi Baffour Awuah, who is also an Assistant Chief Fire Officer (ACFO) told Graphic Online.
He explained that the other three tankers would not have been affected if the drivers of those tankers were available when the first tanker caught fire.
“The drivers had apparently left with the keys of those three tankers that were affected and we could not reach them on their phones to come and move them away when the first one caught fire, spreading to the three and bringing the total number of tankers destroyed to four in the fire incident,” he explained.
Mr. Baffour Awuah added that if the drivers had left the keys with the security men at the BOST depot we could have easily moved the other three to safety.
He said personnel of the GNFS initially started fighting the fire with fire extinguishers and also connected their water hose to the fire hydrant at the BOST depot until a fire tender arrived two hours later from Damongo, the regional capital and another fire tender from Tamale.
“Two fire tenders and a water carriage were used in fighting the fire,” he said.
Mr. Baffour Awuah explained that the fire tender at Buipe Fire Station had been on an out of station duties and therefore the fire fighters had to rely on fire extinguishers and the fire hydrant at the BOST depot to prevent the fire from spreading to the BOST facility.
Meanwhile the Savannah Regional Minister. Mr Salifu Adam Braimah and his deputy Mr. Samuel Tika in the company of the RFO, Mr. Baffour Awuah have visited the fire scene.
—graphic.com.gh
