Chief Fire Officer’s absence at Coconut Grove fire ground unacceptable – Ambrose Dery

The Interior Minister Ambrose Dery has described as unacceptable the absence of the country’s Chief Fire Officer at the scene of Saturday’s inferno at the Coconut Groove Regency Hotel.

Mr. Derry who was at the scene of the conflagration moments after it began said he was not impressed about how the GNFS dealt with the situation.

“I saw that they were trying but I thought we could do things better,” he stated on Morning Starr Monday.

For him, if the equipment used in fighting the fire were a bit sophisticated, things could have been done better.

Announcing the commencement of investigation to determine the cause of the fire, Mr. Dery said he was shocked to find out that the full complement of the leadership of the GNFS were not at the scene of the inferno — a situation he found repugnant.

“If at Ministerial level my deputy and I were there…then we expect the leadership of the Fire service to also to have been there,” he disclosed to Morning Starr host Francis Abban.

The compound of the Coconut Grove Regency Hotel Saturday was gutted by fire, destroying the studios of Amansan Television (ATV) and four commercial offices of Groupe Nduom which share the same compound with the hotel situated at North Ridge near the headquarters of the Ghana Immigration Service at the Ako Adjei interchange.

According to the hotel’s management the fire was caused by a faulty air conditioning unit.

It further added that the hotel is safe “its restaurant, guest rooms and conference facilities are intact and were not touched by the fire.”