GNFS Fire Tenders Obsolete; No Modern Equipment –Muntaka

The Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) operates with obsolete fire tenders and has no modern fire fighting equipment, the Minister for the Interior, Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak has disclosed.

According to the minister, the newest fire tender in the fleet of the GNFS is 15 years old.

The minister made this known on the floor of Parliament on Tuesday, March 18, 2025 in an answer to a question.

He stated that 48 of the existing fire tenders are not in use due to various levels of faults.

This, the minister said, hinders the ability of the firefighters to confront outbreaks as witnessed across the country.

He indicated that the 48 faulty fire tenders were being repaired. However, others get damaged easily because of their obsolete states.

“However, the service lacks adequate and required modern fire fighting logistics to confront fire outbreaks, as you can attest to recent fire outbreaks at several markets throughout the country,” he said.

The minister, who is the Member of Parliament for Asawase, further informed the House that to address the situation, the Ministry of the Interior had plans to retool the service.

He said that “efforts will be put in place to replace all the old fire tenders with state-of-the-art multi-purpose fire tenders.”

QUESTION

A question by the MP for Old Tafo, Vincent Ekow Assafuah, solicited those comments.

Asked in his stead by the MP for Asokwa, Patricia Appiagyei, the MP wanted to know  the current state of resources and logistics available to the GNFS in tackling fire outbreaks.

BREAKDOWN

In his response, the Interior Minister stated that the GNFS has a total number of 247 fire tenders across the country.

He indicated that out of this number, 199 are in commission and 48 are out of commission.

He added that the damaged tenders are being worked on at the various mechanical workshops of the Service in the regions to ensure their continuous use.

The Asokwa MP, Patricia Appiagyei, in a follow-up question, asked for a timeline for procuring state-of-the-art fire tenders for the GNFS, but the minister did not commit himself.

He stated that there were talks ongoing with the Finance Minister to see how allocations could be made.

“So it will be very difficult to give a timeline as to when we can say specifically by this date we will have the first new fire tender coming in,” he remarked.

He continued that, “Knowing that the envelope is tight, the finances are difficult and we are talking to the Finance Minister to make room so that we will be able to retool the fire service.”

Minister Muntaka noted that in their talks, the Minister for Finance is hopeful that during the mid-year budget review, he would consider it as the budget for the year, which had already been presented.

“Because as we speak currently, the budget ceiling that has been given to the Ministry of Interior does not include the possibility of buying fire tenders within the first, what do you call it, second quarter. Because the first quarter is almost gone,” he added.

RETOOLING

The minister told Parliament that for over a decade, there has not been any major retooling at the fire service.This situation, the minister explained, has rendered most of the vehicles very old and the tenders very weak.

“The last time the fire service saw a major retooling was in 2014. And since then, for over a decade, they have not seen major retooling,” he noted.

“So we are currently in talks with the Minister of Finance for him to appreciate that the newest tender that we have is over 15 years old and definitely we need to be able to retool the fire service,” he said.

He acknowledged that though in the last eight years no fire tender was procured, other logistics like pickups and hydraulic platforms were purchased during the period.

FIRE OUTBREAKS

In 2024, Ghana recorded about 5,596 fires across the country. The current year -2025 is only three months old, but has suffered fire outbreaks. In January this year, the whole Kantamanto market was razed down by an inferno.

The Suame Magazine, University of Ghana Estate, Tema Industrial Area Warehouse and Labone SHS are among the places fire has gutted this year.

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