A seven-year-old girl died when fire ravaged an 18-bedroom house at Tindongmolgo, a suburb of Bolgatanga, in the Upper East Region.
The inferno that burnt the compound house, near the Adabase Junior High School, at about 2pm on Monday, has also rendered 40 residents homeless.
The Regional Public Relations Officer (PRO) for the Ghana Fire National Service (GNFS), Divisional Officer Grade II (DOII) Nibunu Callistus, who confirmed the incident to the Ghanaian Times, said his outfit responded swiftly to a distress call “and managed to salvage about three or so rooms from being gutted.”
He said the GNFS had not yet established the cause of the fire, but some eyewitnesses had speculated “reasonably though” that it was triggered by children who attempted to use a gas cylinder to cook food.
According to the landlord, Mr Gilbert Nyaaba Akolgo, but for the quick response from the GNFS, the disaster would have escalated and most houses in the area would have been burnt.
He said that the victims were traumatised and still counting their losses as food stuff, documents, clothes and other personal belongings running into thousands of Ghana Cedis were lost to the fire outbreak.
Meanwhile, a team led by the regional GNFS Commander, Assistant Chief Fire Officer Grade II (ACFOII), Richard Sagoe, on
Tuesday visited the family of the deceased to commiserate with them on the passing of their daughter.
FROM FRANCIS DABRE DABANG, BOLGATANGA