The Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) has impressed upon corporate institutions seeking to build high rise structures to incorporate balconies to aid in evacuation exercises in cases of fire incidents.
The Service believes the move will reduce fatalities at such facilities when fires occur.
Divisional Officer Grade III at the Greater Accra Fire Service, Eric Smith in an interview with Citi Business News said the outfit will sustain education with architects to ensure new structures conform to best standards.
He spoke when the outfit took the staff of Cal Bank through a fire safety drill at the company’s head office on Friday (July 12, 2019).
“Any high rise buildings should have balconies incorporated before we could come in to rescue people who may have been trapped. Looking at our time table ladder which can only reach the seventh floor, if we have a storey building beyond that number, then there will be the need to capitalize on the presence of a balcony to aid in our rescue mission,” Mr. Eric Smith said.
Meanwhile the Head of Human Resource at Cal Bank, Samuel Kwame Boafo assured that the bank will work to correct all minor issues that may impede complete evacuation should any fire incident occur at the premises.
“Being the first time we are organizing this drill, clearly there are areas that can be polished up… we will say that in case of an emergency, we would have ensured that the lives of our customers and staff would have been protected,” he added.