Abossey Okai Fire Outbreak: Distraught Trader Counts His Losses

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A business man at the Abossey Okai spare parts hub, Alex Boakye is counting his losses a day after fire gutted his warehouse at about 4:00pm local time on Sunday evening.

My Boakye who deals in used car tyres speaking to Ghanaweb Monday morning said, he received reports of the fire outbreak at his warehouse around 4:30pm Sunday evening whiles on a trip to Kwahu.

The trader who was reluctant in disclosing the cost of his losses estimated it to be about Ninety-thousand Ghana Cedis.

“The goods burnt is likely to fill a forty-footer container. I don’t want to disclose the amount but if I am to estimate I would say around eighty thousand to ninety thousand Ghana cedis.” Mr boakye said.

Sharing what he suspects may have triggered the inferno, Mr Boakye who says he returned from his journey at dawn, said he was told the fire was caused by the burning of some wastes around the warehouse.

“According to witnesses someone burnt trash around the place and the fire travelled to the warehouse. That is what I have been told but because I am not an expert I cannot confirm that.” He said.

Lamenting on the effect of the fire on his businesses Mr Boakye who professed faith in God added, “the place is a warehouse I have my shop here and by the grace of God not everything got burnt. I started my business from scratch, I know with God I will bounce back.”

Caretaker of the uncompleted story building serving as warehouse for the used car tyres said, even though the fire service personnel who responded to the outbreak did a very good job in dousing the fire, people at the scene had to rush to their office which he says is a stone throw away from the scene before receiving the necessary response after they tried calling them on phone.

The NADMO Municipal Director for Ablekuma Central Mr Kwasi Antwi, who was at the scene with his team to conduct a final assessment of the area placed the number of burnt tyres at an estimate figure of 1200 pieces.

He also attributed the cause of the fire to the burning of refuse around the area, which he said was based on investigations conducted so far.

“If you get to the scene you could see that there is a heap of rubbish burnt. That appears as a usual thing they’ve been doing even though it is not a good thing. Instead of them waiting to make sure those rubbish was burnt and the fire was dead before leaving for home that Saturday, they couldn’t do it, they thought the fire was off, but eventually that was not the case. So I can say, looking at the situation and the report gathered from there that the cause of the fire came as a result of the burning of those rubbish.” He said.

He added that the identity of the people behind the burning of the rubbish which caused the outbreak is yet to be uncovered and therefore cannot hold anyone responsible yet.

“According to the report so far unidentified people did it, unidentified people burned the fire so I don’t know who I would hold responsible for that.”

By: www.ghanaweb.com