Ghanaian trainee Firefighters advance their skills at the FSC

Ceri Darrell | Friday, January 27, 2012

A group of 40 Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) trainees recently attended a capacity building programme at the Fire Service College.  Tullow Ghana and the Jubilee Partners sponsored this training programme to help the Fire Service acquire knowledge and skills of modern trends in fire hazard management.

The trainees have since returned to Ghana where a ceremony was organised for them at the GNFS headquarters. Speaking on behalf of the Minister for Interior, Dr. Benjamin Kumbour, Brigadier General John Bosco Guyiri, the acting Chief Fire Officer, called on the trainees to apply the lessons learned to their trade in order to improve the service and the country.

He said GNFS will, "encourage you to build on knowledge acquired to develop pragmatic and sustainable public awareness programmes to engage and educate the public through the media, especially on domestic fires".
 
Mr Dai Jones, President and General Manager of Tullow Ghana, pledged the continuous support of Tullow Ghana Ltd and the Jubilee Partners to the Service. 

A number of the trainees who spoke at the event expressed their appreciation to the GNFS leadership and Jubilee partners for the opportunity to participate in the Fire Service College's training programme.  Ofori Adjei, a trainee fire officer, commented that his fire investigative skills had improved as a result of the programme.  Another trainee, Roberta Aggrey-Ghanson, said: "The training has given me an insight into the patterns of investigation and this will help me perform effectively to manage resources at fire incidents, while putting the environment first".
 
Augustine Kumi, trainee, praised the course instructors at the College for the practical nature of the training. He commented: "My experience is very different from what we normally go through locally.  At Moreton in Marsh they had real settings and you dealt with the fire situation in a natural state".
 
The training programme was funded in full by Tullow Ghana and the Jubilee Partners at a cost of US$400,000. This was done to prevent the hardships inflicted on households and communities by persistent fire disasters across the country.

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