25 people rendered homeless by fire

Three houses were destroyed, and 25 people, including 17 children, left with nothing, except the clothes they were wearing, following a fire outbreak, said to have been started by two kids roasting groundnuts.

The incident took place at Atanve Number Two in the Akatsi North District.

A source told the Ghana News Agency that at about 1400 hours on Saturday, Joseph Sadziko and Michael Asitor, aged five and three years respectively, decided to roast groundnut in the absence of their parents.

But as Asitor tried to lift the bowl of groundnuts from the fire with a piece of cloth, it caught fire and in a panic he threw it away torching the thatch roofing as the two ran out of the kitchen without raising alarm.

The harmattan winds carried the fire onto the main building of the house, and spread to other buildings within the vicinity.

The District Assembly and Member of Parliament (MP), on Sunday gave three maxi bags of maize, three 25 kilogrammes bags of rice, wax prints, a bale of used cloths, Ghana at 50 cloths and T-shirts to the victims.

Mr. James Gunu, District Chief Executive (DCE), called for extra care to protect life and property at this time, and cautioned smokers, palm wine tappers and cattle herds, to be mindful of the way they handled fire in this harmattan season.