FIRE GUTS PART OF WA PRESIDENTIAL RESIDENCE (PAGE 20)

FIRE last Saturday morning gutted the ground floor of the new presidential residence at Wa, the Upper West regional capital, and destroyed items worth several millions of cedis.
Assistant Chief Fire Officer, Mr Joseph Ahinsah, who briefed the Daily Graphic, said but for the swift response of the Ghana National Fire Service personnel (GNFS), the fire could have engulfed the entire building.
He mentioned some of the items destroyed as woollen carpets, furniture and curtains.
Mr Ahinsah said preliminary investigations revealed that a fan regulator on the walls in the hall could be the cause of the fire.
He said the regulator, which melted either as a result of the fan functioning for a long time, could have led to the fire, adding that the Fire Service personnel who fought the fire would carry out follow-up investigations to ascertain the real cause of the fire.
“It was a serious situation but the intervention of the Fire Service personnel was able to save the situation”, he said.
Mr Ahinsah called for safety measures, especially with regard to the use of electric gadgets, to forestall such occurrences.
He also appealed to the Regional Co-ordinating Council (RCC) to educate the staff of the presidential residence on some fire prevention measures.
That, Mr Ahinsah said, would empower them to be able to handle similar situations before the arrival of the GNFS.