The Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) has denied claims that firefighters arrived at the Manhyia South fire scene on Thursday, August 20, 2026 without water.
Speaking on Ghanakoma morning show on Akoma 87.9 FM in Kumasi with Sir John, on Friday, August 21,2026, the Head of the Ashanti Regional Public Relations Department of the Ghana National Fire Service, D03 Atta Arhin Mensah, described the allegations as false.
He said all fire tenders are fully loaded before deployment.
Allegations that we use sachets of water to extinguish a fire outbreak at Manhyia South is untrue.
A three-storey building at Manhyia South in Kumasi was ravaged by fire, destroying 11 of its 44 rooms and leaving affected residents accounting their losses.
The incident occurred on Thursday afternoon, August 20,2026.
Firefighters arrived at the scene and successfully brought the blaze under control at about 1:49 pm , preventing the fire from spreading further.
DO3 Mensah said those who were using the sachets of water to quench the fire were not members of their team.
However, he said prison officers from Manhyia Prison Service who came in to support pelted sachets of water to douse the fire that destroyed 11 rooms.
He called on the media to always cross check their facts before publishing such informations.
“This video, unfortunately, has been misconstrued and falsely interpreted as if our men used sachets of water to extinguish the said fire despite the presence of the two fire tenders with enough water at the fire scene.
We categorically state that this claim is untrue, false and malicious in nature, just to tarnish the hard worn reputation of the service,” he said.
He insisted that the service will never dispatch fire tenders without water in them during fire outbreaks and has debunked suggestions that occasionally it has attended to distress calls ill-prepared and unable to effectively deal with fire outbreaks.
“It is very common for victims of fire outbreaks to take a swipe at personnel of the GNFS for supposedly moving their fire trucks without water or other firefighting liquids and appropriate tools to scenes of fire outbreaks, where they have struggled to put out the inferno”, he said.
By Benjamin Aidoo
