Fire guts building near Kwame Nkrumah Interchange

Fire has gutted a large house behind the East Cantonments Pharmacy, close to the Kwame Nkrumah Interchange in Accra.

The fire started around 7am on Friday, prompting emergency response from some residents.

At least two fire tenders have been deployed to help fight the fire. The cause of the fire is not immediately known but some residents suspect it was started from a hot iron.

Thick smoke can be seen billowing from the building across the street.

One of the victims of fire told Citi News that they were preparing for a funeral in the house later today when an alarm was sounded about a fire from the top of the storey building.

According to her, use of decking for the story building made it impossible for even those on the ground floor to salvage their properties before the fire spread.

“This morning, I heard my sister shout that the house is on fire. We have a funeral it the house and we are to go take the corpse today. We were sweeping to prepare for the funeral when we were informed about the fire.

The fire started from the top of the building and because the story building was made with decking, we all had to run out. We couldn’t take anything due to the intensity of the fire…. We don’t know the cause of the fire,” she said.

About eight people are said to be resident in the storey building with other adjoining structures.

The scene of the fire is about 100 meters away from the site of the deadly June 5, 2015 national disaster that killed over 150 people, left several other injured, destroyed houses together with a Goil filling station in a joint fire and flooding incident.