Over 700 slum dwellers have been displaced after a fire ripped through wooden structures used as homes, mostly by head porters and scrap dealers at Afful Nkwanta in the Oforikrom Municipality of the Ashanti Region.
The fire started at about 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, but fire officers encountered serious challenges upon arrival, including poor access routes to the area and resistance from a mob that obstructed their operations.
Fire officials estimate that between 300 and 400 structures were destroyed. The affected squatters live in the makeshift wooden structures in clusters, worsening the scale of the devastation.
The area has a long history of fire outbreaks, with similar incidents recorded in 2016, 2020, and earlier this year, leaving many squatters displaced and properties destroyed.
Speaking to Citi News on Saturday, January 17, the Asokwa Municipal Fire Commander, ADO I Ebenezer Graham (Acting), said, “We had a distress call around 4:16 p.m., so we departed with our appliance and rushed to the scene, but when we got there, the access route to the place was a challenge, and there was a mob attack against our people. The structures gutted are about 300 to 400.”
