Kuffuor blaze: Firefighters commended, 'light off' suspected

Firefighters have been praised for their handling of the fire that gutted the Atta Akyea plaza at Nkrumah Circle on Wednesday, the cause of which has not been determined but 'light off' is suspected to have played a part.

In an interview with GhanaWeb, the managing director of NIIT, an ICT institution that occupies the third floor of the building, said that the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) arrived on time to put out the raging fire, contrary to earlier reports that they arrived at the scene late.

“They had the right equipment to fight the fire and they proved that they are well trained. They did extremely well,” Kapil Gupta said.

He continued: “though I am not an expert in fire and electrical matters, considering the ongoing irregular supply of power it will not be farfetched to link the two."

The seven-storey building owned by former Blacks Stars player, Samuel Osei Kuffour caught fire on Wednesday, to the surprise of its occupants.

The building also houses Access Bank both of which have suspended operations for now.

Mr. Gupta disclosed that it was the ceiling that first burst into flames revealing their efforts to douse it proved ineffective as an enormous cloud of smoke eclipsed the entire building.

“Breathing then became very difficult so those of us in the building were left with no option than to occasionally go out to catch some breathe and back...which slowed our efforts to bring the fire under control,” Mr Gupta said.

“It is too early to mention figures because we are still counting our losses, we don’t know how much it will cost right now but looking at what has been destroyed we should be running into thousands of Ghana cedis”.

He added that following the fire incident, all the necessary precautions are being taken to prevent any future occurrences.

“We are bringing in experts to check the electricity and other cables in the building and to see how best we can improve upon the wiring in the building,” he said.

GhanaWeb investigations reveal that the seven-storey building does not have the necessary fire precaution measures in place. The building does not have fire alarms installed or water sprinklers which would have helped greatly in detection and control of the fire.