By William Yaw Owusu
Monday, 01 October 2007
Barely 48 hours after fire devastated parts of Sodom and Gomorrah, a squatters slum near the Agbogbloshie market in Accra, claiming one life, most of the affected residents have started rebuilding their lost homes.
The fire, believed to have started at about 3.15 pm last Friday, destroyed more than 100 homes and property worth millions of cedis, according to the residents.
When the Times visited the scene at 2 pm yesterday, almost all affected residents were busily putting up wooden structures while others were clearing debris to make way for new structures.
While many of them had employed carpenters to build the structures for them, others were doing the building themselves.
One structure was virtually complete and ready for use when this reporter got there.
Carpenters and masons were in high demand while building materials, such as plywoods were selling like hot cakes in the area.
An eyewitness told the Times on Friday that the deceased, a man believed to be a butcher, whose name was not available, was said to be sleeping in his room when the fire swept through it.
He was burnt beyond recognition and the police have since taken his charred remains to the mortuary.
The fire was believed to have started from a popular drinking spot, also used as a brothel and destroyed structures within a stretch of 100 to 200 metres from the banks of the Korle Lagoon to the Agbogbloshie Market’s main road to Arena, Accra.
When firefighters from Accra Central and Cantonments fire stations got to the scene about an hour later, the fire which was aided by the direction of the wind, was still raging but a misunderstanding between residents and the Fire Service personnel made it difficult for the fire to be put out quickly.
Some residents allegedly decided not to co-operate with the fire officers in putting out the fire because they said they arrived late.
Some people even attempted to get hold of the hoses that were being used by the officers to put out the fires themselves. Others pelted the fire tenders with stones.
There were also no access routes to the fire source and the tenders had to be positioned on the main road to fight the fire.
When contacted later, Mr. Ishmael MaCarthy, a Deputy Director in charge of Public Relations at the Ghana National Fire Service, confirmed the story and said it was impossible for fire personnel to move the tenders close to the scene due to the haphazard development in the area.
He said it was unfortunate for the residents to "resort to that kind of behaviour at a time when we needed their cooperation".
The Fire Service will henceforth liaise with the Police Administration during fire outbreaks, he said
On Saturday when the Times visited the scene for the second time, affected residents were seen seaching the rubble to retrieve belongings which were not consumed by the fire.
Abiba Danjumah, 34, a second-hand clothing seller whose house was gutted said she was able to retrieve her bag before the roof caved in.
Kwame Agbeko, a tailor, said he rescued his two daughters aged two and four, moments before the fire got to their house.
But Kwaku Tabindo, popularly called Abotareye, and Kasim Musah, also known as NDC, said they lost everything.
Tabindo said for the past month there had been no supply of electricity to the area due to a faulty transformer. That had compelled people to use naked lights such as candles, a probable cause of the fire outbreak, he said.
This major fire outbreak is the second this year to hit the same area.
On January 19, a fire outbreak occurred there, causing extensive damage.
The settlement has stalled the Korle Lagoon restoration project.
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