A nursing mother and her escaped unhurt after devastating fire outbreak occured at Oseikrom Zalagoza, a suburb of Nkawkaw in the Kwahu West Municipality, on Wednesday, June 11.
The blaze, which started at about 8:50 p.m., razed a house and a shop, displacing several residents. Reports established that no casualties were recorded.
Eyewitnesses say the fire is believed to have started when a resident attempted to fix a faulty gas cylinder.
The report alleged that, the woman, while carrying the cylinder, tripped and fell, causing an explosion that quickly engulfed the house in flames.
An eyewitness narrated the horrifying moment of a mother fleeing while naked with her children to escape the inferno.
“She was screaming and running with her kids, but I couldn’t follow them because I had to go help other victims,”
Efforts to douse the fire were however delayed due to accessibility issues. The Nkawkaw Fire station had initially dispatched its officers to the scene, who could not access the house due to poor road network.
The Mpraeso Fire Service which was called in as reinforcement also encountered similar access challenges due to an unauthorized structure blocking the lane.
As fire officers struggled to link hoses and contain the blaze, tensions rose among some youth at the scene, resulting in verbal abuse and a physical altercation with fire personnel.
Calm was eventually restored through the intervention of community members.
During the chaos, the Nkawkaw Fire Tender nearly caught fire. However, officers quickly intervened to prevent a second disaster.
While some fire officials blamed the youth for allegedly attempting to set the vehicle ablaze, a driver on site clarified that the near-fire was caused by the fire truck’s hot exhaust pipe igniting charcoal that had been spread on the road to aid vehicle movement on the poor terrain.
Despite the challenges, officers from the Ghana National Fire Service at Nkawkaw, with support from the Mpraeso Fire Station eventually brought the fire under control by midnight.
The Kwahu West Municipal Fire Commander, Mr. Samuel Mantey, also visited the scene to assess the situation.
Sadly, the building reportedly containing six to seven rooms and a shop were completely burnt with no traces. All tenants and the landlady managed to escape without any injury.
