It happened on our
estate at around midday on Monday. I was not at home so I missed the full
extent of the drama but even when I got home around 7pm there was more than
enough to send the stomach into cartwheels; two adjoining houses lay in
complete ruins being shells of their former selves. One of them had been
previously covered in beautiful creeping plants, perhaps the pride and joy of
its owner. Ironically, without being an expert, I can see that those beautiful
plants, now parched and withered in the Harmattan haze, could have been the
fuel that speeded the fire on its murderous journey around the house.
Due to legal
implications we will not go into the possible cause of the fire in this
specific case, but it is almost always the case that such outbreaks occur as a
result of human error; however the lady of the house says they have no idea how
the fire started. According to eyewitnesses, the fire started behind one of the
houses and people nearby thought it had been quenched when neighbours helped to
douse the original fire source with water. Unfortunately, the fire appeared to
have “climbed” a nearby tree and torched one of the roofs. The only person at
home in the second house was a mother nursing a very new baby and she was
barely able to move herself and her baby out of harm’s way minutes before they
would have been overcome by smoke inhalation.
Frantic shouts and
screams brought the entire estate to the fire site and then the drama of the
bigger national tragedy began to unfold. Officially, the number 192 is supposed
to be the emergency one-stop telephone number for FIRE. It means that when a
fire breaks out and you find a phone all you need to do is phone the magic
number 192 and help in the big shape of a red fire engine will be on its way.
Fat chance! Neighbours called, shook their telephones, cursed, changed
telephones, used I-pads and galaxy tabs – every modern contrivance of
electronic communication at hand was pressed into service but 192 was dead as a
doornail. Then somebody had the presence of mind to call the police emergency
number – 191- which worked. I am generally critical Ghana Police but on this
occasion they responded and in style. They arrived within minutes and escorted
two water tankers provided by the estate developer to help even before the
firefighters, whom the police had called, arrived.
According to
eye-witnesses, for two hours it appeared as if the post-Noah Armageddon had
arrived on the estate. In a sign of the times and the solid arrival of citizen
journalism on these shores, later in the evening I saw no less than ten video
recordings of the event captured by onlookers on their mobile phones. It looked
dreadful as huge flames leapt out of windows of houses I see every day across
the road from my side of the street. For some strange reason, hours after the
Fire Service engines had left, presuming their work done a new outbreak started
in one of the houses, which is where things were when I got home in the
evening. Frantic calls to 192 failed again and again and
neighbours had to call police emergency and personal contacts to get
through to the Fire Service. The firefighters went away after about an hour.
Let us call that Fire Visitation Two. Curiously, I learnt the following morning
that Fire Visitation Three occurred at one o’clock in the morning when the fire
smouldered
back into life.
Two obvious questions
arise. Number one, why does the fire emergency number not work? Second, how
come the fire erupted again and again hours after the fire engines had left the
first and second times around? In the heat of the moment, trying to get answers
appeared to be a petty distraction but one of the firemen told me that the fire
erupted again because combustible material had been “hiding” under the ashes
somewhere in the room and such material could have smouldered back into life. It is
not an acceptable explanation.
I am not a fire expert
but I think it is reasonable to expect that when professional people do any work
they have a standard assessment procedure that enables them to conclude that
their work has been done, especially in order to assure the public of their
safety. This was not the case on Monday evening on the estate. The fire
returned flaring through the now broken windows and threated nearby houses in
the night. Maybe it is not the fault of the firefighters; it is possible that
the engines were needed elsewhere. During
Harmattan we are all supposed to be cautious because the tinder-dry atmosphere
spreads fire with ruthless speed; the Fire Service and various local and
national authorities mount campaigns but to no avail. That is because words are
not enough.
There has to be a more
robust approach towards preventing fires and other accidents and catastrophes in
our lives. Most of these things can be prevented with a combination of
education, laws and regulations – all of which are in woefully short supply in
Ghana. For example, all telecom companies must be required by law to keep
enough lines open to ensure that there is NEVER any congestion on emergency
numbers; we know they can do it because re-charge numbers are never out of
coverage area! Secondly, how come estates and communities lack water points and
hydrants from which water can be tapped to fight fires? Modern estates are
being built all over Ghana and it should be a requirement for them to include
such preventive facilities in their designs.
In the case of the
Accra-Tema area, city authorities have to ensure that fire service facilities
are developed in response to the way the twin cities are developing. Take the
Spintex Road: there is a gas cylinder manufacturing plant along the
thoroughfare. We can assume that there is gas stored there for testing
purposes. Within a one kilometre
of that factory there are two gas filling stations in addition to numerous
petrol selling points which are opening at the rate of one every couple of
months. There are factories and furniture shops all over the street. There is
no fire station anywhere in sight despite it being one of the most congested
roads in Ghana.
Reports in indicate
that there were 150 fires in the past week. In Noah’s time there was water. We
have been promised the fire next time. It may not come from Hell but made right
here by our own hands and negligence. Indeed, it is already here – the Fire
This Time.
SHELF LIFE
Beginning from today,
Shelf Life will be a constant one-paragraph feature about books, mostly the
books I am reading. But readers can join in the fun by telling Diary readers
what they are reading or want to read. I am currently reading Baffour Agyeman Duah’s
recently launched memoires MY GHANAIAN ODYSSEY published by Digibooks and available at Legon
Bookshop, Silverbird at Accra Mall and leading book stores in Ghana.
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