Fire razes down shops in Tamale
The Christmas celebrations for some shop owners around the Tamale Polytechnic were cut short after fire razed down their properties and completely destroyed all their investments in the afternoon of Christmas Day.
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About 10 shops—salons, provision stores, restaurants and tailoring shops and all their contents such as deep freezers, hairdryers, cooking utensils, among other valuable properties—were all burnt in the inferno.
Most of the victims could be seen struggling to salvage whatever item they could lay their hands on while others just looked on helplessly. There were some police officers at the scene to ensure safety of life and also prevent people from looting.
A victim, Mr Ubald Sabogu, who had his restaurant completely burnt, said he spent huge sums of money refurbishing the facility just about a week ago.
He said he had bought a watertank, a deep freezer, plastic tables and chairs and some cooking utensils.
“All these were purchased with a loan and as I talk I cannot even find a trace of any of them, as they are all in ashes,” he stated.
Another victim, Ms Miriam Akembula (a hair dresser), said she spent all her investment in buying products for the season but all had been destroyed.
“I was afraid that I might spend the money during this season so I used all to buy products and items for my shop but all that investment is this smoke you can see going up the sky over there,” she stated with a false smile.
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She said her hairdryers, wigs, chairs, shampoos, cream and other equipment used in the training of her apprentices were also destroyed in the fire.
Response
Speaking to the Daily Graphic at the scene of the fire, the Northern Regional Fire Commander, Assistant Chief Fire Officer (ACFO) Douglas D. Koyiri, said his outfit received a distress call around 2 p.m. that some stores around the Tamale Polytechnic were on fire.
“We quickly dispatched Pump one to the scene to put out the fire but upon getting there, the pump failed and we had to call for pump two, which was on stand by,” he stated.
He said by the time the second pump came, the fire had already spread and although additional water pumps were brought in, most of the items had already been destroyed.
According to him, it was too early to establish the cause of the fire.
The Northern Regional Police Commander in charge of operations, DSP Ben Aniah, said his men were able to remove the goods from some nearby stores, which were in danger of also catching fire, and put them in a safer place.