Fire destroys property at Abossey Okai

Pg 30. Tuesday Jan. 29/08

Story: Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
The property of tenants occupying 11 single rented rooms at Abossey Okai in Accra, were destroyed when their rooms caught fire at dawn last Wednesday.
The fire, which was spotted by one of the tenants, has displaced about 21 people, one of whom is currently on admission at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital after he sustained burns when he tried to rescue his nine-year-old son who was sleeping in the room when the fire started.
Occupants of the rooms located on the top floor of a one-storey building with shops on the ground floor, included a police officer and his pregnant wife, a tailor, a seamstress, a taxi driver and a businessman.
According to some of the residents, they heard shouts of “fire”, “fire” around 4 a.m. in one of the rooms after the occupant had unsuccessfully tried to put out a fire from the ceiling.
They said on hearing the shouts, they all came out to help put out the fire in the room where the shouts was coming from. Just then, they said, the roof over all the 11 rooms collapsed and the severity of the fire made it impossible for any of the occupants to go back into their rooms to salvage their belongings.
One of the occupants, Mr Michael Sarpong, a machine operator with Kinapharma, who said he lost GH¢1,800 in the fire, said the Fire Service was called around 4.30 a.m. and the fire was brought under control around 5.30 a.m.
He said he, together with all the other occupants, lost all their assets — money, mobile phones and valuable documents.
When the Daily Graphic visited the scene, the ceiling of the 11 rooms had been raised to the ground by the fire while remains of fridges, TV sets, beds, mattresses, documents cooking utensils, clothing, food stuffs among others were seen lying around in the various rooms.