TWELVE
BULK oil storage haulage trucks belonging to Goodness Energy have been burnt following
an inferno which ravaged the company’s yard at Kpone, near Tema.
Ten
of the trucks were completely burnt on Wednesday night, with the remaining two partially
destroyed by the fire.
There was no casualty recorded
but two other properties
— an excavator machine and a footy-feet
container— were also not spared.
It
is still unclear what sparked the inferno but eyewitnesses claimed that it
might be due to illegal transportation of petroleum products from one storage
tank to another with the use of generator.
When
DAILY
GUIDE visited the scene, the area was smeared with petroleum products,
while foam had formed as a result of the heavy fire.
More
than six fire tenders were brought to quench the fire which had generated thick
smoke that was still bellowing.
Confirming
the incident to DAILY GUIDE, Divisional Officer II Timothy Affum, Deputy Tema
Regional Commander of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), said the distress
call came in around 7:00 pm.
“We
arrived at the area and noticed it was a tanker yard housing about 35 bulk
storage tanks with some having petroleum products in them. We were able to stop
the fire from spreading and mobilized drivers to move some of the tankers from
the yard as we made effort to put off the fire completely,” he recounted.
The
Deputy Commander said they were yet to ascertain the actual cause of the fire,
as investigation had been initiated into the incident.
Later,
officials of Goodness Energy refused to comment on the issue as they attacked
anyone who attempted to get closer to the scene.
From Vincent Kubi, Kpone
