Fire causes damage to property and loss of 200 million cedis

Sunyani (B/A) Aug. 7 GNA - A fire outbreak gutted a 25-room storey building in Sunyani on Friday destroying property and 12 million cedis belonging to Berekum-based Arsenals football club in the care of Mr. Takyi Arhin, Secretary of the club.

The cost of damage to personal properties by the fire was estimated at about 200 million cedis.

Mr. Godson Negbleh, Division Grade 111 Officer of the Ghana National Fire Service told Ghana News Agency at the weekend that Mr. Arhin, a tenant of the house told fire personnel that the money, which he kept in his room and his family's personal items were all consumed by the fire. Personal belongings consumed by the fire, included fridges, television sets, ward-robes and clothing.

A sub-chief of Sunyani, Nana Ayensu, also a tenant had his traditional stool and other regalia lost to the fire.

Mr. Negbleh attributed the cause of the fire to an electrical fault and commended people in the neighbourhood for their timely call to the Service, but for which he said the fire would have engulfed the whole house and caused further damage to many of the tenants.

"We went there in the nick of time and despite some initial difficulties, we managed to subdue the fire before it could spread to the other rooms but by then we had contained the fire after it had already caused damage to four rooms."

The Fire Officer said investigations revealed that the cause of the outbreak was due to the improper plugging of a switch of an extension-board connecting to a TV set being watched by Mr. Arhin's children when the parents were out.

DO Negbleh appealed to parents and guardians to ensure that they do not leave electrical appliances in the hands of minors since they are inexperienced in handling electrical gadgets.

He advised house-owners to try as much as possible to re-wire their houses after every 10 years.