Mother, daughters perish in fire
For the second time in one month, the Ashanti Region has recorded a fire incident which has claimed the lives of three people at Abuakwa, near Kumasi.
Abigail Manu, 37, and her two daughters: Nora Yeboah, nine, and Philippa Yeboah, six, lost their lives when fire swept through their apartment in the early hours of yesterday.
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The charred body of Abigail was found shielding her daughters from being burnt by the fire.
Two other occupants of the house, however, escaped unhurt.
It brings to six the number of deaths recorded this year through fire outbreaks in the region.
On January 16, this year, a policeman, together with his wife and his son, died in a similar incident when fire razed down their apartment at Apromase in the Ejisu municipality.
Community intervention
The leader of the Community Security Volunteers, who gave his name only as Stephen, said the volunteers heard a loud noise around 3:15 a.m. yesterday which attracted them to the scene of the fire.
He said the team had difficulty breaking into the house due to the security enforcement, adding that eventually “we had to break into the house from the back, but the fire was too much for us to enter the apartment”.
He said they had to use a neighbour’s pumping machine to douse the fire, by which time the four-bedroom house had been burnt to the ground.
Investigation
The Ashanti Regional Fire Officer, Assistant Chief Fire Officer I Henry Giwa, said investigations were ongoing and that the cause of the fire was yet to be identified.
He, however, stated that the reinforced door could be blamed for the inability of the occupants to escape.
“We have heard stories, but we need to come up with what we think happened,” he said.
ACFO Giwa said the service was getting worried over the recurrent nature of fire incidents and appealed to the people to install fire detector alarms in their homes to help them escape during fire outbreaks.
He said due to the activities of armed robbers, people had fortified their doors, making it difficult for them to escape during fire outbreaks.
Alternative exit
He also called on home owners to create alternative exits in their homes for emergency cases such as fire outbreaks.
The ACFO said having a single exit in a house was not advisable, adding that it made escaping in emergency situations very difficult.
