Four shops – including a wholesale shop for popular grocery outlet First Samuel Supermarket – located on the Kingston Avenue at the Central Business District of Takoradi in the Western Region have been completely destroyed by fire.
The fire, which started at about 12:32am Saturday, took personnel from the Ghana National Fire Service close to five hours to fight it.
Items estimated at thousands of Ghana cedis have been completely lost to the fire.
Speaking to 3news.com at the scene of the incident, Western Region Public Relations Officer for the Ghana National Fire Service DO3 Emmanuel Bonney explained that the regional office received a distress call through their office at the Takoradi Market Circle that there was a fire outbreak at the wholesale shop of First Samuel Supermarket.
“The call explained that the wholesale shop belonging to First Samuel Supermarket was on fire. So, we mobilized and within five minutes got to the scene. We saw four shops on fire when we came. Our initial assessment revealed the roof of the shops had caved in. The buildings also had so many flammable items in them.”
He continued: “So, we mobilized four fire tenders and three tankers. We were able to contain the fire and prevent it from spreading to other areas around the CBG Bank, the UBA Bank, the retail shop of First Samuel and other adjoining shops. Within five hours, we were able to fight the fire and investigation has started.”
DO3 Emmanuel Bonney said there were no injuries and added they were yet to meet the owners of the affected shops to evaluate the cost of damage.
“We are also yet to establish the cause of the fire and from which shop it started,” he added.
Western Region Minister Kwabena Otchere Darko Mensah, who visited the scene of the incident with a team from the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO), extended government’s condolence and that of his to the owners of the affected shops.
“I’ve spoken to the owners of the affected shops and thankfully some of them are insured and so I’m hopeful that when the insurance companies come to do their assessments, they will pay early so that they can get back to business…It is a very sad day. We console them and believe their insurance companies can back them up as quickly as possible. We also thank the assembly man and the watchdog for the area for giving the alert early.”
None of the owners of the affected shops could speak to 3news.com at the scene as, obviously, the damage to their properties had left them dejected.
Owners of shops close by that were partially damaged were seen salvaging what they could from their shops.
By Eric Yaw Adjei|3news.com|Ghana