The Siren No One Hears: How traffic stole 20minutes of firefighters’ time in Tamale

The distress call came at 4:13 p.m. A domestic fire had broken out at Dohinaa Yili in Tamale. For the crew at the Regional Headquarters Fire Station, the journey to the scene should have taken just six minutes. In a fire emergency, those six minutes can make the difference between a frightening incident and the destruction of a home. But the fire tender, which left the station with its siren blaring and emergency lights flashing, did not reach the scene until about 20 minutes later. By then, the rooms had been destroyed. What stood between the station and Dohinaa Yili was not distance. It was traffic. From Aboabo through the Library traffic light to the narrow turn leading to Dohinaa Yili, the road was congested. Commercial tricycles swerved without signalling, taxis stopped in the middle of the road to pick up passengers, and private cars were parked carelessly as their owners went shopping. Even as the siren wailed, drivers and riders failed to give way. “We were inside the tender, shouting through the public address system, ‘Please give way.’ But drivers and riders just closed their ears to the loud noise,” a fire officer said. “Our siren was crying, but Tamale was not listening.” At Dohinaa Yili, residents could only watch helplessly as the fire consumed their rooms and belongings, including mattresses, school uniforms and other personal effects. Neighbours formed a human chain, passing buckets of water in an attempt to contain the blaze. But fire spreads faster than water can be carried in buckets. When the fire tender finally squeezed through the traffic and arrived, the residents’ frustration turned towards the firefighters. “They insulted us. They said we were late, we were useless,” the officer said. “But we showed them our time. We left the station at 4:13 p.m. We were held in the Central Market traffic for about 20 minutes with the siren on. If the road had given way, we could have saved those rooms.” The incident highlights a major challenge facing the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) in Tamale and other emergency services, including the National Ambulance Service. The problem is not simply a shortage of water or fire engines, but the failure of road users to respond to emergency sirens and clear the way. I remember this problem all too well. In 2006, my late sister experienced a medical emergency and was being transported in an ambulance. Its siren blared as the vehicle struggled through traffic, but no one seemed to hear it. Every second inside that ambulance felt like an hour as our family prayed that someone, anyone, would hear the siren and give way. More than 15 years later, the situation remains largely unchanged. Ghana’s Road Traffic Regulations, 2012 (L.I. 2180), contain provisions requiring road users to give way to emergency vehicles operating with sirens and flashing lights. Failure to comply may attract legal consequences. Yet, on the roads around Dohinaa Yili, Kalpohin, Lamashegu and Sagnarigu, enforcement appears inadequate. Today, it is Dohinaa Yili. Tomorrow, it could be your home in Sakasaka, Fuo or Kalpohin. It could also be a loved one in an ambulance, racing against time to reach a hospital. The fire at Dohinaa Yili was eventually extinguished. But the incident left behind a painful lesson Tamale cannot afford to ignore: in an emergency, the danger is not always the fire, the illness or the accident. Sometimes, it is the struggle to get help to the people who need it. When an emergency siren sounds, giving way is not a courtesy. It could be the difference between life and death.