FIRE DESTROYS HOUSES, SHOPS AT ELUBO (SPREAD, SEPT 23, 2010)

More than 400 properties comprising houses, shops and goods worth millions of Ghana cedis were yesterday consumed by fire at Elubo in the Jomoro District of the Western Region.
An unconfirmed report indicated that a four-year-old child who was asleep in a shop also got burnt beyond recognition.
The situation nearly turned nasty as the youth of the town went on the rampage attacking the police who were clearing the street for the fire engines to move to the scene of the fire.
The youth chanted and vented their anger on the police and the firemen, saying, “After the fire had razed the town to the ground the fire service is now arriving, what are they coming to do? We don’t need them.”
Items such as wax prints, shoes, personal belongings, hundreds of residential facilities, fridges, new television sets and a chunk of the Elubo Market were consumed by the fire.
The fire which was said to have been caused by a faulty generator which was being used by the owner as aresult of a power outage could have been contained but for the lack of a fire post in the district.
The only fire post, manned by a few personnel, has a bucket of sand and one very rusty fire extinguisher.
The nearest fire post, which is Axim, had its fire engine broken down four months ago, and another station at Agona Nkwanta did not have a fire engine.
Two fire tenders had to be dispatched from the regional headquarters in Sekondi/Takoradi, a distance of about 110km from Elubo, to salvage the situation.
Sensing danger, the station officer for Elubo Police Station, Inspector J.E. Mensah, went from house to house and shop to shop to plead with people who wanted to stay to guard their property to move out.
An eye witness, Nana Agyei, told that Daily Graphic that it was business as usual at the border as people started running and shouting to raise alarm about the fire outbreak.
He said at the time the security agencies decided to move in to save the situation, the outbreak was virtually out of control.
One immigration officer also told the Daily Graphic that the calls made to Axim did not yield any response.
“We then had to call Takoradi before the regional office dispatched two fire engines which took more than 1-hour 20minutes to arrive,” he said.
Electricity supply to the town has been unterrupted following the fire but the district station officer said they had dispatched officers throughout the town to ensure that life and property were protected.
He said some of the buildings that were slightly affected and could be pulled down would be guarded to ensure that people did not capitalise on the situation to rob them of their contents.
When contacted the District Chief Executive, Mr Victor Nyianyi Kablan, who moved to the scene to assess the situation described it as heartbreaking and painful.