An eyewitness has given a vivid account of what caused the fire outbreak at the Aboabo cereal market in Tamale at the dawn of last Saturday (January 29, 2022). According to the eyewitness, the fire started at the rooftop of an agrochemical shop where she said smoke emanated from the ceiling of the structure.
“The fire was caused by electricity contrary to speculations that a mad man caused it. I saw the fire, [Pointing to a nearby electricity pole closer to the rooftop of the agrochemical shop] and cried out that there was fire, so the night watchman for the secondhand clothing market rushed here with a cutlass and asked what happen; and I told him that the Ganorma agrochemical shop had caught fire from the electric pole here and that is why the knapsacks in the store got burnt” the eyewitness identified as Mumuni Zeliya narrated in an exclusive interview with THE CUSTODIAN on Monday.
She continued, “One of the electricity wires fell here and I cautioned the drivers around to move their vehicles out of the area. Even the Gonja man – the Salaga driver – the old man, I held his smock and pulled him down when I woke him up and he about running away and asked him to also drive his vehicle away to safety. There was nobody in the market at the time of the fire; I had just arrived in the market with bread.”
“…What I want to say is that people should answer their phone calls at night. I called about four people but none of them answered their calls. When someone calls you at night, it isn’t that the person is calling to borrow money, therefore, people should answer their calls at night – you don’t know, it could be an accident or something and that’s why the person is calling. If people were around, they could’ve saved the fire from getting to the other stores” she said.
Meanwhile, the Ghana National Fire Service in a separate interaction disclosed that about 15 shops have been affected.
The Northern Regional Public Relations Officer of the GNFS, Mr. Baba Hudu, said some of these incidents occur as a result of people’s lackadaisical attitude towards fire, adding people are adamant to adhere to safety practices.
“We must at all times be watchful when we use fire especially electricity – it is dangerous sometimes, therefore, we should be careful with the way we handle it.”
Nonetheless, Mr. Hudu noted the GNFS will continue to educate the public especially in this dry season, warning people not to underestimate the impact of fire however little it may be.
In addition, he said people should endeavor to always call the emergency service line for prompt response and not wait until situations become serious before they place calls to them.
