The Public Relations Officer of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), ADO1 Alex King Nartey, has revealed that part of the reasons firefighters couldn’t contain the Adum Market fire on time was due to faulty tenders.
He says tenders at the closest fire stations to the incident which could have salvaged the control of the inferno was out of commission at the time.
Several shops in the Central Business District of Kumasi were burnt down in a Friday dawn inferno at Adum.
The fire, which started early Friday, March 21, spread rapidly due to highly combustible materials, making it difficult for firefighters to contain.
The flames quickly spread through a section of the busy Adum Market, sending traders into panic as they scrambled to salvage part of their goods as they could.
Addressing the delay in the fire response, King Nartey explained they had to resort to other stations for support due to the faulty engines in the tenders at the Kumasi Metro and and Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital stations which made them unable to move at the time of the outbreak.
“As we have always bemoaned the outdated nature of our fire tenders, the closest station that could have attended to the situation would have ideally been the Komfo Anokye or our Metro station but unfortunately, both fire tenders were out of commission and so we had to fall on our regional headquarters which is 20 minutes drive.
“Though it was 20 minutes away, our officers were able to get there in 10 minutes and we got to the scene around 06:15,” he stated.
Meanwhile, the Ashanti Regional Fire Commander, ACFO II Peter Tetteh, has said his men were finding difficulties controlling the fire due to the lack of accessibility to the place.
He explained the congestion in the area affected their ability to reach the source of the fire to control it.
Adum: Congestion in market contributed to fire spread – Ashanti Regional Fire Commander
