Tears Flow At Kokompe

Disaster! the afthermath of Darkuman Kokompe fire.

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Monday October 3, 2011.
Shop Owners at Kokompe at Darkuman junction in Accra could not contain the trauma of seeing their investments in ruins as they broke down in tears following a deadly inferno that swept through one of the old markets in the country on Friday night.

The Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) was tested on its fire control capability again as the firemen were overwhelmed by the fire which teased them for several hours as onlookers wondered whether they were really primed for the assignment despite taking delivery of firefighting equipment recently.

The fire which started at about 10pm remained untamable by the firemen with their tenders until around 4am leaving in its trail destroyed goods worth several millions of Ghana Cedis and collapsed traders.

Several public buildings and markets have seen one fire incident or the other sometimes leaving their trail deaths apart from destruction of properties.

The intensity of the fire could be determined by the pockets of smoldering fire dotting the place as firemen moved around to put them out with policemen on standby to contain any act of lawlessness or outright theft when such situations arise.

A fireman told DAILY GUIDE that they have been working all night to bring the situation under control an indication of how serious the fire was.

The place had been thrown into a state of mourning and traders, even men wept uncontrollably over the loss of their wares and capital, with victims claiming that they had cash in their shops. Dada Kofi aka Obolo, a victim said “I have six stores full of goods on credit but I could not retrieve a penny from it. The inferno was strong…it was like hell…the firemen could not do anything about it.”

“I buy or credit materials and goods worth GHc2000 on daily basis and they are all gone within a twinkle of an eye.”

Another shop owner who gave his name as Benjilo said “when I got to the scene the fire had not entered the spot where my shop is but the fire officers said their vehicles were using gas and so could not get close to the fire while others also said there were no water hydrants around.”

“How are we starting again? This is our lives…we have lost everything…we appeal to the government to support us just as NADMO has been doing for flood victims and we will appreciate it very much,” he said.

It took several hours for fire personnel to break through but their inability to get access to fire hydrants exacerbated the situation and the GNFS had call for reinforcement from Tema.

Eyewitnesses gave contradictory statements about how the fire started. While some said power outage triggered the inferno others claimed it was due to negligence on the part of a watchman named only as Efo whom the AMA boss, Alfred Oko Vanderpuije confirmed DAILY GUIDE was currently in police custody to assist in investigations.

At about 9:10am, Mr Vanderpuije arrived at the scene to assess the extent of damage for himself.

The AMA boss who was visibly shaken by the turn of events expressed concern about the persistent fire outbreaks in the various public places and assured he had already called for a thorough investigation into the disaster.

In a brief message he said “this fire outbreak is a bother to all of us so I came to assure you that we will investigate to know what exactly happened.”

Sharing his thoughts on what might have happened, the AMA boss said “they burn the materials they do not need at the end of the day. I have been here personally on three or four occasions to help put away small fires but unfortunately this is one that got out of control. What we had anticipated could happen in the past is what has happened today so we have to put our hands together to see what we could do.”

“Apart from congestion, they have their own way of disposing unwanted materials and setting fire on these unwanted materials is one of the means even though it may sometimes not be the best means.”

“I always come here to warn them about the fires. It is unfortunate that this has turned into a major disaster. We will be meeting the leadership of the various associations here to see the way forward.”

“It may not be intentional because they always try to dispose off unwanted material at the end of the day and that may have triggered the fire. We have always spoken against that.”

“There has not been report of any loss of life. I have not been briefed on that. The Fire Service briefed me about the situation but did not say there were deaths.”