Fire Service warns against use of gas cylinders by taxi drivers

Sunyani, June 2, GNA - Mr Orison Dameshi, the Brong-Ahafo Regional Safety Officer of Ghana National Fire Service, has called on operators and attendants at gas filling stations to decline to serve drivers who present domestic gas cylinders to be filled for their vehicles.

He told the Ghana News Agency in Sunyani in an interview that the practice by the drivers was very dangerous and could cause disaster and loss of lives and property.

"Removing and fixing of gas cylinders by especially commercial drive= rs can cause leakage because they (drivers) are not experts and the process ca= n spark fire setting the car ablaze," Mr Dameshi said. He said cylinders used by taxi drivers were even not appropriate because domestic cylinders were made to stand upright and not lying sideways.

Mr Dameshi said GNFS would soon liaise with the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) to organise a seminar to educate drivers on the issue as well as educate the public on what to do when they smelt gas in vehicles they are travelling on. He warned that drivers who would be caught carrying domestic cylinders removed from their vehicles to filling stations would be arrested and hande= d over to the police for prosecution. Mr Dameshi said explosion of cylinders in commercial vehicles was becoming rampant in the country and needed stringent measures to check. He cited the case of a taxi that was set ablaze in Sunyani on May 24 because the cylinder in the taxi's booth was leaking and the driver had parked his taxi near a place where a woman was frying plantain. Before the GNFS personnel reached the place the vehicle had already burnt into ashes but was able to control the fire from spreading to nearby houses and shops, he said.