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6th April, 2010
Don't Merely Issue Certs For Fuel/Gas Stations - EPA Urged
The Environmental Protection Agency has been urged to thoroughly inspect sites and fire certificates before issuing permits for people to build fuel and gas stations in order to avoid siting such stations at residential areas.
Mr. Clifford Nii Tetteh Adams, the Tema Regional Fire Officer made the suggestion after three people were burnt to death and 36 others suffered injuries from a gas explosion at a filling station at Tema Newtown last Wednesday evening.
The dead were identified as Alfred Otu 32, a worker at the Filling Station, Ami Mensah, 38 and a woman yet to be identified by the police.
The fire blew one of the station’s gas storage cylinders into pieces and spread to the near-by St. Peter’s Catholic Church, burning its plastic ceiling.
Some wooden kiosks serving as abode for squatters near the filling station were razed to the ground.
Mr. Adams expressed concern at the rate at which permits were given to people to site fuel and gas stations at residential areas, without fire certificates.
He said investigations revealed that the filling station did not have the hydrant as required by law.
He alleged that anytime personnel of the safety department of the Fire Service went to inspect fire certificate at the filling station, they were driven away by the claiming that the dealt directly with Fire Service headquarters in Accra.
Mr. Adams said such inspections were necessary to ensure that people regularly followed laid-down regulation by replenishing the chemical in their fire extinguishers when they expired.
He said on assumption of office, recently, he ensured that the premises of companies were thoroughly inspected before fire safety certificates were issued adding that the inspection was to ensure that the companies had evacuation or preventives measures in place.
He advised fuel tanker drivers to switch off their engines at least for 30 or 45 minutes to cool off the engines before discharging their consignment.
Mrs. Rebecca Adjei, wife of the station owner told the Times, that all their hopes were gone because the filling station was their source of livelihood.
‘This is our only source of income, we do not have anything apart from provision store that we operate along side the gas station’, she said.
She said her husband had a call moments after arriving home that the entire station was engulfed in flames, ‘My husband is a diabetic patient and has high blood pressure he cannot come here,’ she added.
Tema New Town Police Commander, Assistant Superientendent, Ali Seidu, confirming the incident, said in the course of discharging the gas both the station workers and the driver of the tanker admitted that they smelt the scent of gas which should have indicated to them that there was a leakage.
They apparently did not check where the scent was coming from but rather continued to discharge the gas he added.
He said the injured were rushed to hospital but the three were pronounced dead the following day. The rest were responding to treatment.
The Public Relations Officer of the Tema Regional Fire Service, Timothy Osafo-Affum, said eight fire tenders, six from National Fire Service and two from the Tema Oil Refinery were used to quench the fire which took them two hours.
The Member of Parliament for Tema East, Samuel Ashong Narh who visited the scene described the incident as serious and called on the public to respect laid-down rules by ensuring that fuel stations were not built at places where they were not supposed to be.
Mr. Steven Larbi, the Public Relations Manager of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) led a team of officials from NPA to assess the situation. A team from the National Disaster Management Organisation also visited the scene.
Mr. Clifford Nii Tetteh Adams, the Tema Regional Fire Officer made the suggestion after three people were burnt to death and 36 others suffered injuries from a gas explosion at a filling station at Tema Newtown last Wednesday evening.
The dead were identified as Alfred Otu 32, a worker at the Filling Station, Ami Mensah, 38 and a woman yet to be identified by the police.
The fire blew one of the station’s gas storage cylinders into pieces and spread to the near-by St. Peter’s Catholic Church, burning its plastic ceiling.
Some wooden kiosks serving as abode for squatters near the filling station were razed to the ground.
Mr. Adams expressed concern at the rate at which permits were given to people to site fuel and gas stations at residential areas, without fire certificates.
He said investigations revealed that the filling station did not have the hydrant as required by law.
He alleged that anytime personnel of the safety department of the Fire Service went to inspect fire certificate at the filling station, they were driven away by the claiming that the dealt directly with Fire Service headquarters in Accra.
Mr. Adams said such inspections were necessary to ensure that people regularly followed laid-down regulation by replenishing the chemical in their fire extinguishers when they expired.
He said on assumption of office, recently, he ensured that the premises of companies were thoroughly inspected before fire safety certificates were issued adding that the inspection was to ensure that the companies had evacuation or preventives measures in place.
He advised fuel tanker drivers to switch off their engines at least for 30 or 45 minutes to cool off the engines before discharging their consignment.
Mrs. Rebecca Adjei, wife of the station owner told the Times, that all their hopes were gone because the filling station was their source of livelihood.
‘This is our only source of income, we do not have anything apart from provision store that we operate along side the gas station’, she said.
She said her husband had a call moments after arriving home that the entire station was engulfed in flames, ‘My husband is a diabetic patient and has high blood pressure he cannot come here,’ she added.
Tema New Town Police Commander, Assistant Superientendent, Ali Seidu, confirming the incident, said in the course of discharging the gas both the station workers and the driver of the tanker admitted that they smelt the scent of gas which should have indicated to them that there was a leakage.
They apparently did not check where the scent was coming from but rather continued to discharge the gas he added.
He said the injured were rushed to hospital but the three were pronounced dead the following day. The rest were responding to treatment.
The Public Relations Officer of the Tema Regional Fire Service, Timothy Osafo-Affum, said eight fire tenders, six from National Fire Service and two from the Tema Oil Refinery were used to quench the fire which took them two hours.
The Member of Parliament for Tema East, Samuel Ashong Narh who visited the scene described the incident as serious and called on the public to respect laid-down rules by ensuring that fuel stations were not built at places where they were not supposed to be.
Mr. Steven Larbi, the Public Relations Manager of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) led a team of officials from NPA to assess the situation. A team from the National Disaster Management Organisation also visited the scene.
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