Fire razes town in Brong-Ahafo

Atesikrom (B/A), Feb. 19, GNA - A wild fire from an unknown source on Monday swept through Atesikrom, near Dormaa Ahenkro in Brong-Ahafo and destroyed several houses and personal effects. Residents could not determine the source of the fire that took three hours for some youth to bring under control and rendered 140 residents homeless.

The personal effects included clothing, roofing sheets, cooking utensils, bags of maize and livestock. An eye witness, Amadu Kofi Fofie, told the Ghana News Agency the disaster occurred at the time when most of residents were on their farms.

Mr. Fofie said the fire emerged from the eastern outskirt of the town around 1400 hours. "A distress call was sent to the district office of the National Fire Service via the local FM stations at Dormaa-Ahenkro but help came in rather too late as the fire had already finished with its work", he said.

It was learnt the fire tender at Dormaa Ahenkro had been sent to Accra for repairs a long time ago so the office had to fall on Berekum for assistance and that explained the late arrival of the tender. Mr. Fofie commended Squadron Leader Ben Anane Asamoah (RTD), District Chief Executive, and the Police Superintendent Mohammed Ali for visiting the disaster scene to assess the extent of damage. He recalled a similar incident in the town in 1983 that destroyed property and claimed one life.