Fire destroys home, property in 2 areas in Accra

 Two separate fire incidents at Taifa and Sodom and Gomorrah, both Accra suburbs, has reduced many  structures to rubble.

The occupants of the structures are believed to have lost fortunes.

Salomey Appiah reports that at Sodom and Gomorrah, the fire rendered hundreds of residents homeless.

Many homes, mainly wooden structures, and property worth thousands of Ghana cedis were destroyed in the fire.

When the Daily Graphic got to the scene around 1:30 p.m., some of the victims were wailing over their loss, while others were carrying their belongings to safe places.

The lack of access to the area hampered efforts by the fire service to reach the scene of the fire immediately after they received the call around 12 noon to put it out.

According to the Deputy Greater Accra Regional Commander of the Ghana National Fire Service, Assistant Chief Fire Officer Patrick Donkor, the cause of the fire was yet to be established.

He, however, cautioned the public to be careful with fire, since the dry season was drawing near.

The heavily populated Sodom and Gomorrah has suffered a number of destructive fire outbreaks in recent times, including a more recent one in May, this year.

In respect of the Taifa incident, Dominic Moses Awiah reports that at least 25 structures and three houses were destroyed last Wednesday night when a fierce fire gutted a small neighbourhood behind the railway line near the Taifa Junction.

The fire, said to have started around 11 p.m., destroyed the personal property of more than 40 traders. These include television sets, home theatres, clothes and others, the cost of which runs into thousands of cedis.

Although the cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained, one of the victims, Nana Kwamena, alleged that it was caused by one of the dwellers in the wooden structure who lit a candle in his room and went out to purchase something.

“I was heading to the Accra Mall when I saw smoke on top of one of the kiosks. Initially, I thought it was just one of the dwellers selling his usual khebab but when I got closer, I realised it was coming out from the kiosk. Then I started shouting,” he said.

Nana Kwamena said the fire spread quickly because the structure from which it started had a gas cylinder which might have caused an explosion.

When the Daily Graphic visited the scene yesterday morning, victims of the fire were devastated. Some of them were spotted standing in small groups, with their arms folded, as they pondered over their plight.

While some of the victims were busily salvaging what they could from the debris, others, whose entire livelihoods had been destroyed, wailed uncontrollably.

When contacted, the Accra Regional Police Crime Officer, Chief Superintendent Emmanuel Frank Adufati, said personnel of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) and the police worked hard to bring the situation under control.

Daily Graphic/Ghana