Woman trapped by fire rescued
Quick action by a group of people at a fire scene at the Adenta Barrier in Accra Wednesday saved the life of a 65-year-old woman, Mrs Mercy Botwe, who was taking a nap in her provisions store when it caught fire.
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The fire started at an adjoining restaurant, Sweet Mother Catering Services, and a drinking spot, and spread to the container store, which was next to the restaurant.
Items in Mrs Botwe’s store and two others nearby were burnt to ashes, while two other stores were partially damaged.
She also lost GHc2,000 in the fire.
The fire incident and Mrs Botwe’s escape partly traumatised her, according to her son, Mr Isaac Botwe, in an interview.
"My mum can't talk at the moment; she is traumatised. The incident really affected her but we thank God and the people here that she was taken to safety," he told the Daily Graphic after the fire had been brought under control by the Adenta and the Madina divisions of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS).
"The painful thing is that my mother was preparing to send the GHc2,000 to the bank tomorrow to pay a loan, only for it to be burnt," Mr Botwe, a policeman, added.
Cause of fire
The Station Officer at the Madina Division of the GNFS, Mr Amidu Musah, told the Daily Graphic that preliminary information gathered from eyewitnesses showed that the fire resulted from gas that was leaking from one of the cylinders used in the restaurant.
"I can't be accurate, but what we have gathered shows that the fire came from a leaking cylinder at the restaurant and then spread to the other shops," he said.
Eyewitnesses at the scene and the son of the provisions shop owner, Mr Botwe, corroborated the claim.
Some of the eyewitnesses explained that they had previously smelt gas from the restaurant and had asked the owner to address the issue.
"But she insulted us and this has now happened," a middle-aged man, who gave his name as Haruna, said.
The owner of the restaurant was not available when the incident happened. Her staff declined to comment on the matter.
Confrontation
Moments after officers of the GNFS had started to put out the fire, some of the eyewitnesses confronted some of the officers with allegations that they had delayed in responding to the distress call.
That did not go down well with the officers and resulted in an altercation between some of the men and the eyewitnesses.
Mr Musah, however, explained that it was the victims who delayed in reporting the matter and not the other way round.
"When the fire started, instead of them (the victims) calling the fire service, they were rather trying to put it out themselves by pelting sachet water at it. When we got here, the fire had well lighted and we quickly assessed the situation and started to extinguish it," he said.
He described as unfortunate the altercation between his men and the eyewitnesses, saying that people should learn to contact the service on time and be supportive when there was fire, instead of trying to fight fire officers.
