The Asokwa Municipal Fire Command of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) has begun investigations into a fire outbreak that razed about 15 makeshift structures at Kaase-Fari in the Ashanti Region.
The unfortunate incident occurred on the night of Wednesday, August 19, 2020.
No casualties were however recorded due to the timely intervention of firefighters.
Fire swept through a number of wooden structures in the area that housed squatters who also sell fuel.
But, officers of the fire Command were able to bring the situation under control a few minutes after they arrived at the scene.
Speaking to Citi News, the Acting Municipal Fire Commander for Asokwa, Bernard Nyemi-Tei noted that the actual cause of the inferno is yet to be established.
He, however, believed the fuel being sold in the area may have caused the fire to spread more quickly.
“We had a distress call and we rushed to the scene and when we got there, we realised that the structures were made up of basically wood. They were also housing fuel-petrol, diesel- so that made the fire to spread more. Fortunately, there was no casualty because the fire was brought under control within 10 to 20 minutes. For now, we don’t have a clear picture of how the fire started, but once the activity is volatile fuel, we are suspecting that an ignition source came into contact with the fuel. But we are yet to confirm”, he said.
This is the fifth major fire incident occurring in parts of the country in less than two weeks.
Parts of the Electoral Commission’s (EC) Accra Regional office at Sapeiman near Amasaman caught fire last week. A room that contains electoral materials was affected.
More devastating, however, was the blaze that swept through a slum in Shiashie where over 100 kiosks which serve as shelter for some squatters were burnt to ashes.
In the Western Region, about five stores on the Kingston Avenue at the Takoradi Market Circle were up in flames over the weekend.
On Monday, a fire outbreak at Town Council Line, a suburb at Laterbiokoshie in Accra, also destroyed homes of squatters and tonnes of wood fuel.
