Tragedy at Mampong…As fire destroys houses and properties

Fire has gutted Sekruwa, a farming community near Mampong in the Asante Mampong municipality of Ashanti region, rendering more than 80 people homeless and destroying properties worth one hundred thousand Ghana cedis.

The fire, according to an eyewitness, started from a nearby farm and swept through ten houses wiping out valuable household items and farm products.

Some of the items which the fire reduced to ashes included sewing machines, clothing, four boxes of key soap, several gallons of cooking oil, 553 bags of maize, physical cash of about GH¢ 5,000 and other things which were not spared in the fire outbreak.

Speaking to TODAY in an interview, some of the affected residents contended that the catastrophe occurred between the hours of 3-4p.m., on Saturday, February 6, 2010, after a bush burning exercise which was started from the bush of a neighbouring town called Atonsu Agya.

The residents, however, expressed misgivings about activities of hunters and Fulani herdsmen in the area which they noted was the main causes of fire outbreaks in the community.

The Municipal Chief Executive, Daniel Apau Okyeaman, pledging immediate support for the affected residents, shortly after the incident, charged the community members to turn bare lands into plantations to forestall the recurrence of bush fires in the area.

He advised them to consult authority of the anti-bush fire squad before carrying out any burning activity, adding that people who caused fire outbreaks should be reported to the police for the necessary action to be taken.

For his part, the Municipal Coordinator of the National Disaster Management Organization, (NADMO), Iddrisu Morro, noted that that was the third time fire had razed down the entire community with the first occurring in 1992.

He mentioned vigorous education as the main panacea to fighting fire disasters, especially during the dry season.

The Divisional Police Commander, Chief Superintendent Edward Oduro Kwarteng, appealed to government to subsidise the cost of roofing sheets and other building materials to enable the people access them rather than use thatched roofs, since most of the houses with roofing sheets were not affected.

Against that background, he advised the inhabitants to be very wary of the way and manner they use fire and desist from hunting and other activities that could lead to fire outbreaks, particularly during the dry season.

STORY: FROM ENOCH AKONNOR, SEKRUKWA