Correspondence from Ashanti region

A ten-bedroom house has been completely gutted by fire at Akropong in the Atwima Nwabiagya North District of the Ashanti region.

The incident which occurred on Thursday night has since left residents stranded and homeless.

Timothy Tetteh, a resident, giving an eyewitness account of the incident said he saw a smoke coming out of the ceiling after he had returned from town, around 9:00PM.

"Everybody was inside when I saw the smoke. By then, I had returned from Bantama, I therefore called to ask if anyone of them was using a charcoal pot. But before I could say jack, we just saw parts of the ceiling totally broken and the next thing we saw was the spread of the fire. We quickly went to switch off the house metre but it was very unfortunate that things got escalated," he said.

He further revealed that the worst situation compelled all the inhabitants of the house to run out of their rooms for cover without being able to take anything along.

Other residents who spoke to this reporter said though no life was lost, all their belongings and other properties have been completely lost to the fire.

They further blamed fire service personnel for coming to the scene very late. According to them, despite placing a distress call to their office around 10:00PM, the fire men came to the scene at 2:00 AM before they could douse the fire.

"Before they came, everything had destroyed. Now we have nothing left".

Most of them who are female are therefore appealing to the general public to come to their aid since they are left with nothing.

Samuel Kowan Ndaka, the landlord of the house said, they unfortunate incident has brought lots of pain and loses to him and the rest of the victims.

According to him, he was not in the house when the incident happened.

"I received the call around 9:15PM that my house was on fire. By the time I came, it had got to its worst stage. The tenants were left with nothing, the entire house got collapse".

According to him, the house which contained about ten bedrooms, toilet, kitchen and bathrooms was left with nothing.

He said the only things left on the ternants were the shirts they were wearing during the incident.

He is also appealing to the NADMO, philanthropists and other stakeholders to come to their aid.