Fire guts Bekwai SDA SHS, houses
Two separate fire outbreaks have occurred at Ative-Korfevie, a farming community in the Ketu North District in the Volta Region, and the Bekwai SDA Senior High School (SHS) in Bekwai in the Ashanti Region, destroying houses and personal belongings.
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The fire at Ative-Korfevie destroyed 34 thatched houses, rendering at least 134 people homeless, while the fire at the Bekwai SDA SHS destroyed the Nana Ameyaw House
‘B’ Boys’ Dormitory which houses nearly 100 students.
There were no casualties in both incidents, partly because the residents of Ative-Korfevie had gone to their farms when the fire broke out, while the students of the SDA SHS were in their classrooms when the fire started in the dormitory.
At Ative-Korfevie, the fire started about 1p.m. last Wednesday and, according to some residents, it might have been caused by some game hunters who set fire to a nearby bush.
Hectic time
Firemen of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) from Akatsi and Dzodze had a hectic time putting out the fire at Ative-Korfevie, which had spread to some electricity cables. About 15 electric poles were destroyed.
It took the firemen about four hours to bring the fire under control.
Items such as clothes, food, cooking utensils, roofing sheets and farm produce, including maize, were burnt.
The Deputy Ketu North District Co-ordinator of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), Mr Bright Martin Dela Alormatu, told the Daily Graphic that the affected people had been relocated to a nearby vocational school building, while arrangements were being made for relief items for them.
In the case of the fire outbreak at the Bekwai SDA SHS, it destroyed everything, especially trunks, chop boxes, clothes, books and buckets belonging to the students and caused serious damage to nearby buildings, especially the Nana Ameyaw House Dormitory Block A.
Briefing the Daily Graphic, the Headmaster of the school, Mr George Oduro-Yeboah, said the outbreak occurred around 8.40 p.m. last Wednesday when the students were studying in their classrooms.
It was some residents of the area who raised the alarm that smoke was emanating from the building.
He said the authorities immediately called in the GNFS, whose men responded immediately, but when they got to the scene the fire had destroyed the entire building.
Measures
Mr Oduro-Yeboah told the Daily Graphic that the school authorities were putting temporary measures in place to ensure that the affected students were comfortably accommodated.
“One of the measures, he explained, was to move the students to a nearby three-classroom block to be used as their temporary dormitory, while a building which was under construction would be completed to be used as a classroom block,” he said.
