Fire Officer cautions public against collecting spilling fuel

Assistant Divisional Officer I (ADOI) Christian Nyarkosah of the Ashaiman Fire Station, has reiterated the call on the public to desist from syphoning fuel from spilling tankers. The act could lead to a fire outbreak and even death, he said, stressing that it was unfortunate that some Ghanaians had not been heeding the advice to avoid going to accident scenes to collect spilling fuel. 'Ghanaians have not learned and are still not learning. We've been educating the public that when there is a spillage, especially in super (petrol), because of its violent nature, we need not go near it,' he said. 'But time without number, we see them still going close to fetching the fuel; you see members of the public rushing there to siphon fuel; how much is the fuel that you will put your life at risk? We need not do that.' ADOI Nyarkosah made the call when he led a team of fire officers to tackle a spillage from a fuel tanker on Tuesday night on the Ashaiman Zenu road near the Lebanon International School in the Greater Accra Region. Briefing the media on the incident, he said the station received a distressed call at 2150 hours and the team quickly moved to the spillage scene, arriving at 2203 hours. Upon reaching the scene, he said they realised that the residents were fetching the fuel with buckets and cans, which could spark fire. 'We called for police assistance and they quickly stopped it, while we also called for two additional pumps from the motorway and Katamanso Fire Stations to augment our efforts'. The Fire Officer said it took them over three hours to tackle the spillage seeping through the bottom of the tanker, which was in a normal position, adding that they placed the tanker at a safe place and washed the fuel off the road. Source: Ghana News Agency