A two years old baby boy has perished in a mobile money container shop at Apremdo, a suburb of Kwesimintsim in the Effia-Kwesimintsim Municipal Assembly of the Western Region following a fire outbreak.
Two diesel fuel Tankers, a Taxi and 7 metal built container shops also got burnt during the fire outbreak.
According to an eye witness, the fire started after an explosion was heard from the location where the two diesel tankers which were parked awaiting orders to be discharge into reservoirs. The Tankers were directly behind the Apremdo Market.
“We called fire Service immediately after the tankers caught fire but the Fire Service was not available on time to rescue the situation. At the end of the day, two diesel fuel Tankers and a Taxi got burnt and a two years old baby also perished”.
Benjamin Crintsil is the owner of the mobile money business and the container shop that trapped the two years old baby boy to death. He explained how the two years old baby boy got trapped
“I am Benjamin Crintsil, Joe( the two years old boy who died) is my employee’s sibiling child, the baby’s mother is a seamstress and she normally put Joe under our care anytime she comes to the Apremdo market. There were three children in the container together with my employee and myself. My employee stepped out to urinate but when she returned, she exclaimed! that there is a fire outbreak, I was also in the container with the children. When it happened like that, there was a struggle for life . In the Struggle, we stepped out and I only saw the two children infront of the shop. I thought my other employee has taken Joe for save keeping. When we moved away a bit, my employee said that Joe was in the shop, so she went back to check on him and I decided to save the other two children. I later wanted to return but I heard a blast around the shop which got me scared. I later saw my employee who said she couldn’t see the boy but I heard people say that a young boy has been picked infront of the store only to later realized that the baby was trapped in the container shop after Fire Service extinguished the fire”.
The public relation officer of the Western Regional Fire Service, Ebo Boney, also confirmed that the body of the child was found behind a counter of the mobile money container shop.
“So far we have finally extinguished the fire and done our Mop up, we are yet to meet the owners of the shop to ascertain the cost of damages. The body of the child was found behind the counter of the mobile money container shop”
Answering the question about why the Ghana Service delayed when they were call to extinguish the fire, Dsp Ebo Biney said that though there is a fire post at Apremdo directly opposite the scene, fire men had attended to another duty at different scene 20 minutes ago before the call came in for an intervention.
He adviced the general public to always give way to the fire service during such incidents to enable them to do their work.
He went on to add that “it is better to report humans who have been trapped to be rescue before any other thing in fire fighting, therefore the general public should take a cue from what has happened” .
Story by kwame Offei
