Fire guts Kuku Hill residence : Six-year-old dead and a baby severely burnt
Fire gutted the residence of a family of four at Kuku Hill, Osu, yesterday, Friday, January 2, leaving six-year-old child dead and a nine-month-old baby severely burnt.
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The body of the child, identified as Nancy Aryee, has been deposited at the Police Hospital morgue in Accra, while her sibling, Edward Aryee, is receiving treatment at the Intensive Care Unit of the Trauma and Burns Centre at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH).
The incident, which occurred around 7 a.m., has deeply traumatised the parents of the children, Mr Emmanuel Aryee, 46, and Mrs Akrong Aryee, aka Dora Frimpongmaa, 42, who were also taken to the Ridge Hospital after the incident but were discharged later in the day.
Police
Narrating the incident to the Daily Graphic, Superintendent Joseph Owusu-Bempah, the Commander of the Osu Police Station, said the Fire Service, which arrived at the scene at 8 a.m., was still investigating the cause of the fire.
He, however, said preliminary reports indicated that the two children who were outside were called indoors by their parents just before the incident occurred.
A spokesman for the family, Mr Richard Robinson Aryee, told the Daily Graphic, as well as Mrs Dzifa Abla Gomashie, Deputy Minister, Tourism and Creative Arts, and sympathisers who were present to commiserate with the family that the fire spread quickly when it started, making it impossible to save Little Nancy who was trapped inside.
Account of fire
He said although the fire engine from the Fire Service arrived early and the personnel were assisted by members of the household to put out the fire, the combustible nature of materials in the building made the fire so intense that Nancy could not be pulled out.
“The fire started from the entrance of the hall and spread to the bedroom, but as the door to the bedroom was locked, there was no way we could get inside,” he said.
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The spokesman added that Mr Aryee was outside washing a vehicle, while his wife was indoors, when the fire started but the woman was able to escape unhurt.
A family member said just a day before, on January 1, a family get-together was held for the extended family, which Nancy attended.
Eyewitnesses who spoke with the Daily Graphic said they suspected that the fire was caused by a printer that was in the room or a match that was lit by one of the children.
Many sympathisers had thronged the compound of the Aryees at the time the Daily Graphic visited.