FIRE DESTROYS WAREHOUSE IN WA (BACK PAGE)

THE offices of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) in Wa, the Upper West Regional capital, were yesterday exposed to the vagaries of the harmattan when fire from the surrounding bushes engulfed a sheanut warehouse.
Officials of the MoFA could not immediately tell who might have set the fire but attributed it to the habitual indiscriminate burning of bushes by unidentified people who normally combed the bushes for rats during the harmattan.
They could not also give the estimated cost of the items destroyed by the fire but when this reporter enquired from a storekeeper and one of the administrators, they claimed the warehouse had been rented out to a private entity, the International Business Group Ghana Limited, and that they were not really concerned about what went on in it.
Eyewitnesses told the Daily Graphic that but for the hard work of personnel of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), the fire would have extended to an adjacent building where new motorcycles, parts for new tractors and power tillers, among other new equipment for the regional MoFA office, were being kept.
As of 12 noon when the Daily Graphic got to the scene, personnel from the Fire Service, led by the Regional Commander, Mr Joseph Ahinsah, were busily struggling to put out the fire.
However, their efforts were nearly thwarted as the lights went off and there was no power to pump water into the water tenders.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic, Mr Ahinsah praised the personnel for their effort and cautioned residents of the region to desist from setting fire recklessly.
He warned of very serious disasters if they continued to burn bushes indiscriminately and particularly as the harmattan had just set in.
The Regional Director of Agriculture, Mr Emmanuel Eledi, who was visibly disturbed by the development, said, "Barely two weeks ago I had asked that a fire belt should be created around the office but that had not been done till now."