Fire at slam

THERE was a fire outbreak at the Konkomba Market at Agbogbloshie in Accra yesterday afternoon destroying many of the buildings in the slum.
But, instead of coming together to fight the fire, the members of the community took to stone throwing at one another, thwarting the efforts of personnel from the Ghana National Fire Service from putting out the fire as early as possible.
There were no casualties but an unspecified number of the residents sustained various degrees of injuries.
A number of wooden structures within 50 metres square of the slum were burnt down, destroying all the properties in them.
The cause of the fire is yet to be established, but it was suspected to have started from a room of one of the residents.
An eyewitness told the Daily Graphic that one of the inmates of the room was smoking near to a gas cylinder.
According to the eyewitness, the smoker threw the piece of cigarette towards the direction of the cylinder.
In the process, the gas cylinder caught fire and exploded. The fire spread to the other wooden structures in the slum.
As soon as there was the explosion, the resident who was smoking, apparently shocked by the incident, jumped from the top of the wooden storey building and fled.
It was very difficult for the personnel from the Fire Service to get the location of the fire as there was no thoroughfare to the place of the fire.
It took the personnel about two hours to bring the fire under control.