Fire razes makeshift wooden structure in Accra

More than 30 workers of the Chinese State Hualong Construction were displaced on Tuesday due to a fire outbreak that completely destroyed a makeshift wooden structure located near the Office of the First Lady.

The Ghana News Agency (GNA) observed that the five wooden structures which housed workers of the construction company were completely bent into ashes but no casualties were recorded.

The intervention of fire service personnel at the Ministries Fire Station quenched the fire when all attempt by some workers around to put out the fire failed.

Even though the cause of the fire could not be immediately ascertained, information gathered by GNA revealed that the fire started in one of the building and subsequently spread to the other wooden structures.

Madam Naomi Ofori-Adobea (DOII), the Commander in charge of Ministries Fire Station in an interview with GNA said they suspected the fire outbreak was caused by an electrical fault since there were only two extension boards for the wooden structures.

She said the fire service personnel were informed that the fire outbreak started at 15:02 hours and their team of seven personnel did their best to put out the fire at 17:26 hours.

“The fire destroyed the entire structure, including clothing, money, beds, cooking utensils, gas cookers, television, laptops, among others”, she said.

Madam Ofori-Adobea said their team worked tirelessly to prevent the spread of the fire to the adjoining buildings which were closer to the Office of the First Lady and the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development.

She said the fire was able to spread easily because the structures were all made up of combustible materials, noting that investigations were underway to ascertain the cause of the fire outbreak.

Mr. Ebenezer Mensah, who occupies one of the wooden structures said the structure housed workers of the Chinese company working on the State House project (Job 600).

He said the fire outbreak started in their absence since they were all at work, adding that it took several hours for those around to bring the fire under control.

He appealed to government and other institutions to come to the aid of the victims and provide a shelter for them since they have nowhere to sleep.                  

China State Hualong Construction (Ghana) Limited is a comprehensive group corporation mainly engaged in industrial and civil buildings, construction of municipal roads and bridges, and international engineering contracting.