About one thousand head porters who reside in a makeshift structure at Dagombaline in Kumasi have been displaced after fire razed their structures.
Tuesday’s incident which happened at about 4:00pm, becomes the second this year that over 400 wooden structures serving as homes for the head porters popularly known as Kayayei.
The cause of the fire is not immediately known but officials of the Ghana National Fire Service have commenced investigations.
No casualty was recorded but several items including home appliances such as TVs, VCDs, cooking utensils and other personal effects among other properties estimated to be thousands of cedis were destroyed by the fire.
The swift intervention by the personnel of the Ghana National Fire Service caused the fire from spreading to other homes nearby. The personnel initially had a difficult time accessing the area due to lack of access routes. Some residents had to assist the fire personnel to bring the ravaging fire under control.
Assistant Chief Fire Officer Ebonyi Gaddiel said the fire caused severe damage because of the wooden structures and their proximity to each other, saying “The way they have structured their building it doesn’t give ventilation in the area”.
He said the fire team from KNUST was the first to arrive at the scene but they realized the intensity of the fire was so huge they had to call for reinforcement while they prevented the fire from spreading to other areas.
“The whole place is [filled] with wooden structures, if you’re not careful it will spread to all the areas here. The wooden [structures are] so close that when fire catches one room it easily get to the other. So we told them to space themselves,” Mr Gaddiel said. The chairman of the head porters, Osman Nuhu, called on city authorities to assist them since most of the affected persons have lost all their investment.
He admitted the lack of space in the area which hinders easy access but said they have no choice than to build their structures in that order due to limited land space.
Sign up for Ghana Star News to receive daily email alerts of breaking news in Ghana. GhanaStar.com is your source for all Ghana News. Get the latest Ghana news, breaking news, sports, politics, entertainment and more about Ghana, Africa and beyond.