Five rooms, stores razed by fire in Tamale

Five rooms serving as bedrooms, and a number of stores near the Central Market in Tamale were gutted by fire on Sunday dawn.

When the Ghana News Agency visited the scene, it observed that there was no casualty.

However, property worth thousands of Ghana Cedis, including physical cash, had been lost in the fire.

Electrical gadgets and electric poles belonging to the Northern Electricity Distribution Company Limited were also damaged.

It took the intervention of personnel from the Ghana National Fire Service to bring the fire under control.

Mr Ibrahim Jawal, whose store was burnt, told the GNA that, "I have lost everything. We need government's support or else we are doomed. As we speak, everything in my store has been burnt. I could not retrieve even a single item."

He explained: "I left some money that was supposed to be taken to the bank, but because yesterday was the weekend, I could not send it. That money too has been burnt."

Assistant Divisional Officer (Grade II) Mr Baba Hudu, Public Relations Officer of the Ghana National Fire Service in the Northern Region, said investigations had begun to ascertain the cause of the fire.

He was not happy that the people rather called the Accra office of the Fire Service to report the fire incident instead of calling the Tamale emergency lines, saying that practice delayed emergency response.

Last year, a total of 357 fire-related cases were recorded in the Northern Region resulting in 13 deaths.

They included 164 domestic fire cases, 24 vehicular fire cases, six institutional fire cases, 49 electrical fire cases 48 commercial fire cases and 17 bush fires.