The developer of the Saglemi Affordable Housing Project, Quarm LMI consortium, confirmed that the fire outbreak at the project site did not impact any housing units or relevant documents.
As part of preparations to develop the abandoned project, labourers set fire to clear some weedy sections of the site. Unfortunately, the fire spread to external warehouses containing expired building equipment.
Addressing journalists during a site tour with the Sector Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah on Wednesday, December 26, Managing Director Kofi Adaboh Ofori Amanfo clarified the situation:
“So, I think yesterday around 1 o’clock, we had our labourers working on the campsite as you saw it when you came here. So as we came here in November, we started trying to clear the campsite to prepare for actual development. So I think some labourers set some little fire just to clear the weeds they had gathered.
“But they couldn’t control it, and they had to move into one of our external warehouses that went up, and that’s what, the fire from the fire station at Sege came to help us to quench. So it’s really not the houses, as I said earlier. It was the storage area at our campsite and behind me, you can see the houses. It’s not touched. I’ve not even started working in there. So there’s nothing happening here,” he said.
Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, Minister of Works and Housing, encouraged the consortium to expedite the project and stick to the agreed timelines.
He urged adherence to building codes and safety standards, adding:
“In accordance with the various instruments, like the building code, like the site layout itself, do your best to comply, and then also you’ve given us timelines by which you expect to complete this project, do well to stick to those ones. We’ll wait for the fire department to give us an update of what may have been destroyed in the old shed that got destroyed in that incident.
“But I’m happy to see that contrary to the story that, you know, the housing project has been burnt now. It’s still here intact and that is the old shed with the old materials in there. Two of them, and then two containers that caught fire. At least, that gives us some comfort. So carry on with your work,” he stated.
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