By
Eunice Hilda Ampomah/Abdulai Haruna, GNA
Accra, Jan. 19, GNA –
The Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) is investigating the cause of the fire,
which destroyed four apartments in a residential block at the 37 Military
Officers’ Mess, over the weekend.
Divisional Officer
(DO) Grade II Ellis Okoh, the Public Relations Officer of the GNFS, in an
interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) said the Service received a distress
call at the 0908 hours on Saturday, and arrived at the scene about nine minutes
thereafter.
With two fire trucks,
the firefighters extinguished the blaze at 1005 hours.
The fire, however,
burnt completely three of the top level apartments of the one-storey Block C,
which comprises eight apartments.
Only two of the
affected officers were able to salvage a few partially torched personal
belongings.
There were, however,
no casualties.
DO Okoh appealed to
the residents and the public to volunteer information, which would help to
establish the cause of disaster.
When the GNA visited
the scene, it observed that the destroyed property included clothing,
furniture, air conditioners, television sets, and kitchen items.
Meanwhile, Colonel
Eric Aggrey-Quashie, the Director of the Public Relations Directorate of the
Ghana Armed Forces, told the GNA that the affected officers, with their
families, had been relocated temporarily at the Officers’ Quarters at the Burma
Camp.
The fire, he said,
started in the room of an officer, who had gone on a 24-hour duty.
Before those around
who detected the smoke could break into the apartment to extinguish the fire,
it quickly spread to the rest of the top floor, he said.
Though the fire
officers responded rapidly to the call for help, the intensity of the fire, he
noted, was so severe that they were limited in their intervention.
The combustible nature
of the ceiling and the dry weather did not help matters, he said.
At the time of the
incident the family members of the affected officers were all not around.
GNA