Abstract:
Recently, Ghana has been plagued by increasing and disastrous fire emergencies, yet
little research exists on Ghana’s fire response system. This paper examines the emergency
fire response system in Kumasi, Ghana’s second largest city. We use spatial
analysis to evaluate the geographic distribution of existing fire stations and their service
areas, and identify coverage gaps based on specified response times. Our results
show that large portions of the Kumasi Metropolitan Area are underserved, a situation
that partly explains the huge losses in property and lives during recent fire outbreaks.
Efficient location of fire stations using simple location–allocation models can
help to improve response to fire emergencies and reduce the cost of fire outbreaks in
African cities.
