One dead as fire destroys cocoa, plantain farms in Bosomtwi District
A devastating eight-day old bush fire has wreaked havoc on some farming communities in the Bosomtwi District in the Ashanti Region, destroying over 500 acres of farms and claiming one life.
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Highly affected towns are Brodekwano, which is known for growing a huge numbers of food stuffs, especially plantain and Konkoma, which is noted for their large number of huge plantations of cocoa and other crops.
DCE
Speaking to the Daly Graphic on Sunday ,the DCE for Bosomtwe, Madam Veronica Antwi said: “The one week old fire has now reached Abono and is destroying farms, I have just been informed and I am on my way there”.
Affected
Farmers in adjoining towns and villages including Krodadem were all on red alert to fight the fire with their cutlasses and hoes, when Daily Graphic visited the area on Saturday.
Almost, every member of the communities had been affected.
Dead/Injured
Two young men were receiving treatment at the hospital for their life threatening burns from the bush fire, which also destroyed huge amounts of harvested and yet to be harvested farm produce.
A 15-year-old boy, Kwadwo Dwomoh, was burnt beyond recognition when he tried to prevent the fire from destroying his father’s cocoa farm, while his two other friends, Felix Nkrumah and Gideon Fosu, sustained severe burns on parts of their bodies.
They are receiving treatment were on admission at the Konkoma SDA Clinic as at the time of filing this report.
Ordeal
Narrating their ordeal, the Chief of Brodekwa, Nana Kwame Acheampong, who has lost his 25-acre cocoa farm to the fire said since the fire started on Thursday, prompting him to mobilise all the young men and women in the town to sleep in the bush.
He said while in the bush, they strategised and ensured that they prevented the fire from venturing into other farms.
He said all their farmlands had been destroyed, and they did not know how they were going to feed themselves and their families.
Nana Acheampong, therefore, made a passionate appeal to government, philanthropists and organised group to come to their aid.
Madam Charity Boateng told the Daily Graphic that if the government did not intervene on their behalf, most of them would go to jail and the leave their families to wallow in hunger and poverty because they would not be able to pay the loans they contracted to farm.
She said she recently harvested over 300 bags of maize which had also been consumed by the fire.