Fire guts cold store

Tema, April 9, GNA - Fire, in the early hours of Wednesday swept through the Ghana Cold Store at the Tema Fishing Harbour destroying large quantities of fish and poultry products. The fire, which started around 0300 hours, was brought under control in three hours by fire men from the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA), the National Fire Service and the Tema Oil Refinery, Captain James Owusu-Koranteng, the Harbour Master told the GNA at the scene of the fire.

There was no casualty and the cause of the fire is not immediately known. He said about 10,000 cartons of poultry products were badly damaged while some of the fish also got destroyed in the building which houses other cold stores such as the Obedu Fishing Company Limited, Global Commodities and others.

Capt Owusu-Koranteng said he received a distress call that the area was under fire at 3am, so fire personnel from the GPHA rushed there, who quickly disconnected the electricity in 30 minutes but due to the magnitude of the fire they forcibly broke through the entrance and started fighting it. They were soon joined by their counterparts from the Tema office of the Fire Service and TOR who went along with about five fire tenders full of water for the operation. However, the Harbour Master said the severity of the fire demanded that they supported it with sea water and that helped to quench it in three hours.

As at 7.15am the firemen were still pumping water to the boundaries of the cold store to prevent any ignition. Meanwhile, police personnel have been deployed to guard the area to prevent looting of the fish and meat that were not burnt. The owners of the fish and poultry products could not immediately be reached for their comments.