Two kids burnt to death in Tamale

Two children were last Monday burnt to death at Chanshegu, a suburb of Tamale, when the room in which they were sleeping caught fire.

The deceased persons, Solomon Ameh, 10, and Nkenah Ameh, five, according to the police, were left in the room by their parents who had gone out to buy sugar at about 9.30 pm last Monday.

The two children were pronounced dead on arrival at the Tamale Teaching Hospital after personnel of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) and the police responded to distress calls from co-tenants in the house.

Cause of fire

The GNFS is yet to establish the cause of the fire although some tenants believed that two water heaters suspected to have been left unattended to might have caused the fire.

Investigations

The Northern Regional Police Public Relations Officer (PRO), Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), Ebenezer Tetteh, told the Daily Graphic that apart from the investigations by the GNFS to establish the cause of the fire, his outfit was also looking into issues of negligence on the part of the parents.

He quoted Section 71 of the Criminal Offence Act of Ghana which states that " A person commits misdemeanour when he or she unlawfully (a) exposes a child to danger or abandoned a child under 12 years or (b) exposes a physical or mentally handicapped child to danger or abandoned a physically or mentally handicapped child in a manner that is likely to cause any harm to any child" would be prosecuted.

According to him, the parents of the children were currently traumatised by the incident.