New Fadama fire renders residents homeless

A raging fire at New Fadama, a suburb of Accra, recently rendered many residents including a teenage mother with a six months old baby, homeless.

After fire officers managed to put out the fire, some of the victims hoping to find some useful items that may have been spared by the fire, scavenged through the ruins in search of non-existent belongings.

The fire, which started between 12 noon and 1pm, completely ravaged parts of the community destroying properties running into hundreds of thousands of cedis.

The cause of the fire is not immediately known but residents suspect the wrong use of an electrical gadget by a resident may have started it.

Lack of access road through the community made it difficult for the personnel of the Ghana National Fire Service to bring the fire under control.

New Fadama is one of the communities in Ghana with high incidents of fire outbreaks.

Amina Alhassan, a teenage mother with her six-months-old baby on her lap, sitting in the scorching sun with her few belongings lying by her wept bitterly; her dwelling place has been reduced to ashes by the fire and she had nowhere to go.

She feared her baby may get some infections as a result of the smoke from substances which are harmful to babies.

She tearfully appealed for help but had little faith that anybody would listen to her plea.

Amina said she had become accustomed to living rough and having no help from those who have.