Update: Deadly Accra Fire: 100 feared dead
About 100 people are now feared dead in Wednesday night’s fire disaster at a Goil filling station at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra.
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Officials of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) initially put the death toll at 96, but four more bodies were said to have been recovered from the scene Thursday morning.
It is not clear what started the fire that completely destroyed the filling station next to the GCB Bank Circle Tower branch, and also burnt several houses and shops, but eyewitnesses suspect fuel-laden floods could have imported the fire which trapped many who had sought refuge from torrential rains that cut off several communities from major roads.
The floods have also destroyed property across the country and in the capital in particular, leading to the death of dozens of people.
Scenes of floating vehicles in drains and overnight pools greet the eye in several parts of Accra.
Meanwhile, President John Dramani Mahama, who visited the scene of the devastation at Circle, described the incident as 'catastrophic', saying he was lost for words.
“A lot of people have lost their lives. I am at a loss for words to express how I feel, many of them through the floods and then many of them through the fire incident that took place here as the result of the explosion that took place in the filling station located right here”, he said.
“We have to take some measures to be able to avoid this in the future, and often when these moves are started, you have a lot of sympathy and pressure not to take those measures, but I think that the time has come for us to move out of the waterways and the public should understand that… I mean this loss of lives is catastrophic,” he added.
