Wooden structures housing more than 50 families at ‘Shangai’, a suburb of Kpone, at Kpone-Kantamanto, near Tema, were Friday night gutted by fire.
It left property worth several thousands of cedis destroyed and rendered at least 200 people homeless.
Five fire tenders from the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) and Tema Oil Refinery took about three hours to bring the fire under control.
There was no casualty as the inhabitants managed to escape before the blaze intensified.
Briefing the Ghanaian Times on Friday, Deputy Tema Regional Commander of GNFS, Divisional Officer I, Timothy Osafo-Affum, said his outfit received a distress call at 5pm Friday that a house at Kpone was on fire.
He said subsequently personnel were dispatched to deal with it, with support from the fire brigade at TOR.
Mr Osafo-Affum said on arrival, the GNFS personnel noticed that the fire had spread to many rooms in the area.
He said the combustible nature of the wooden structure and the injection of fuel from the exploded liquefied petroleum gas cylinders in the compound made it difficult to conquer the fire in time.
According to Mr Osafo-Affum, GNFS investigation indicates that the fire started from a kitchen in the compound where food was being cooked on a gas stove.
He said the son of the ownerof the kitchen saw the fire engulfed the facility. and raised the alarm, prompting the occupants to run for their lives.
Mr Osafo-Affum asked residents not to leave fires unattended to during the harmattan.
“Please turn off all electrical appliances that are not in use and when you leave home and do not set fires as a means of clearing weeds because the dry winds can spread the embers to cause a fire outbreak,” he advised.
FROM GODFRED BLAY GIBBAH, KPONE
