FIRE ENGULFS FAMILY RESIDENCE IN KUMASI (PAGE 20)

The property of A 55-year-old security officer and his wife was destroyed in a fire outbreak that occurred at their family residence at Denchemuoso, near Kwadaso in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region.
Mr Owusu Afriyie, who works as security man in Kumasi, was rendered homeless, after the fire outbreak, which destroyed property worth over GH¢70,000 belonging to the couple and other tenants of the house.
According to family sources, the house caught fire around 1 pm last Thursday under mysterious circumstances.
"I cannot assign any reason as to why the family house could catch fire at broad daylight because I personally witnessed the scene when the house was engulfed in the flame, burning every property into ashes, including those of my nephew and wife who are due for retirement," Nana Ofori Sarkodie, the Odikro of Denchemuoso, who resides in the house, told the Daily Graphic in an interview.
Explaining, he said the fire outbreak could not be attributed to any electrical fault "because the tenants had not enjoyed any power for sometime and no one was at home at the time the house caught fire".
"I am the only one in the house who sometimes uses gas cooker but it had not been used for some time now. I was standing in front of the house with my nephew, Akwasi Addo, discussing an issue when a young girl drew my attention to a smoke from one of the bedrooms," he explained further.
According to Nana Sarkodie, they called the National Fire Service as soon as they detected the fire outbreak, but when the firemen arrived at Denchemuoso around 5 pm, the house was completely burnt, and not a single item was retrieved.
He said the quick response by the youth in the community prevented the fire from spreading to the surrounding houses.
Nana Sarkodie said "at the moment, we are living under the benevolence of residents here. This is because all our furniture, clothing, food items and cash were completely burnt. So I am appealing to the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) to come to our aid," he pleaded.
He said financial and other support in the form of building materials by the NADMO and other philanthropists would enable them to rebuild the house.