A three-year-old girl has been burnt to death at Tikrom in the Ejisu Municipality of the Ashanti Region.
The incident happened at Tuesday dawn when the 14-bedroom house caught fire, forcing tenants to flee for safety. The charred body of the deceased, Patience Ohemaa Ampaw, was later found after firefighters battled the blaze for nearly three hours.
A spokesperson of the Ghana National Fire Service in the Ashanti Region D.O III Peter Osei Addai said investigations have started to ascertain the cause of the fire.
“We had a distress call around 2:49 a.m., that there was a fire outbreak at Ejisu-Tikrom. Our men were dispatched to the place and realized the fire was well alight. And so another team was dispatched to totally extinguish it around 5:02 a.m.”, the fire spokesperson explained adding, the case was being investigated.
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“The 14-bedroom house was totally burnt including its content. Because there was no gable the fire was able to spread quickly. We entreat the public to put up a gable in order to serve as a firebreak”, the fire officer said.
But mother of the victim, Portia Amoah, suspects foul play as her account suggests some oil spills were detected at the scene when she attempted to save the deceased and her grandmother.
“I couldn’t breathe because of the billowing smoke and so I picked my eldest child out. I realized my mother and my daughter had been trapped and so we decided to break their door open. We managed to save my mum but unfortunately my daughter could not make it because the fire was well alight”, she said.
“I found oil spills around the house which suggested this was a planned attack”, she said amid tears.
A team from the Ghana National Fire Service were still at the scene to assess the situation.
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