At least 40 kiosks,
cars and a bar have been burnt to ashes at a slum under the Achimota overhead
bridge, on Tuesday morning, in Accra.
Residents of the slum, located between Eden Securities and Makey Pub, are
counting their losses.
Eyewitnesses said the fire started from a kiosk, belonging to the son of the
landlord, who sold the land to the owner of Makey Pub.
They said they suspected the fire was deliberate because the new landowner had
paid the tenants for them to move away from his property.
Meanwhile,
a blazing fire on Monday evening burnt to the ground a major pharmacy and
several shops at Asante Bekwai, destroying property worth millions of cedis in
the process.
Speaking to Adom News’ Isaac Normanyo at the scene of the incident, some of the
owners of the destroyed shops, said fire officers did all that they could, but
the damage had already been caused.
At a point, the fire was extending to the GCB Bank in the area, so the manager
called for the intervention of soldiers, who took money there to safety.
Akwasi Mensah, an eyewitness, said the
presence of fridges in one of the shops might have caused the spread of the
fire.
He said when personnel of the Ghana National Fire Service “did all they
could but the fire was raging because of the materials in the shop. There
documents, drugs and the fridges, were
burnt to ashes”.
“The fire spread to the old SSNIT building which also houses GCB and the
manager did well to save customers cash and other valuables,” he said.
Amos Abban, the Bekwai Municipal Fire Commander, said they were informed of the
fire outbreak around 6:19pm on Monday.
Mr Abban advised cylinder owners to have the faulty regulators replaced instead
of putting stones and other objects on them, to avoid any fire outbreak.
