Sagnarigu: Retired Health Personnel And His Family Rendered Homeless After Fire Razed Down Their Five Bedroom Apartment

A Retired health personnel and his family including tenants in the Fuo Electoral Area in the Sagnarigu Municipality of the Northern Region have been rendered homeless after his five-bedroom apartment was razed down by a fire.

The fire incident happened Sunday morning February 19, 2023, when the occupants were alleged to have been out of the house. It is unclear what might have caused the fire but the some personnel of the Ghana National Fire Service were present to help bring the fire under control.

Properties worth thousands of cedis have all been destroyed by the fire including foodstuffs, undisclosed cash amounts, deep freezers, clothes, television sets, and a motto bike, among others. Meanwhile, there were no casualties.

Rashida Abdulai Alhassan is the landlady and she tells MX24 News that all their belongings have been destroyed.

She said they are left in a state of confusion because there was nothing they could salvage.

“We were not in the house when the incident happened, my father called to inform me that our house was on fire, and by the time we arrived here everything has already been burnt to ashes, i mean everything, my kitchen utensils, electrical gadgets, clothes, money and even as we speak it’s only these clothes we are wearing that we have,” she said.

The Acting Northern Regional Operations Officer of the Ghana National Fire Service Mr. Tisong Charles in an interview with MX24 News said they received a distressed call at about 0730 hours and immediately a team of firefighters was dispatched to the scene to help bring down the ravaging fire.

“The cause of the fire is not yet known, we are still assessing the situation to be able to establish the actual cause of the fire, we are told that the occupants of the apartment, the landlord, and his family were not present when the incident happened so we are working on the situation,” he said.

Mr. Charles said they are worried about the incessant fire outbreaks in the Metropolis. He said last year alone Tamale recorded about 84 fire incidents and 46 as of January to February this year alone.

“We were thinking February is going and the fires will have reduced but it looks like we are rather having an increase in fires; we have done what we are supposed to do, fire education, we have gone to most of the communities to educate the people on some of the things they should do in order not to have fire outbreaks and when there is a fire outbreak, but it looks like it’s still not going down well so we need to do more on our education so that the public will become users of the rules of fire safety,” he said.

The Acting Operations Officer however urged the residents in Tamale to always call the local fire station’s number whenever there is an outbreak instead of relying on the national number.

“We have 112 number and this number is a national number made of Ambulance, Ghana National Fire Service, and the Police but the little advise i have for the people here is that wherever you find yourself try as much as possible to get the local fire station number, i mean the station that is closer to you so that when there’s an incident you can easily reach them,” he said.