Fire Guts Abesim Presbyterian School

Fire has gutted the Presbyterian Primary “A” School at Abesim, near Sunyani and destroyed items worth GHC35,000.

Divisional Officer (DO) II Jonathan Ashong, the Sunyani Municipal Fire Commander of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), briefing the Ghana News Agency on the incidence mentioned that a store room containing the School’s exercise and text books and an office with furniture were totally burnt while one classroom also partially got burnt.

He stated the fire started at about 1500 hours when classes were still in progress, saying one of the pupils set fire in front of the office to burn rubbish but it got out of control when it came into contact with weeds and other materials around the school.

DO II Ashong said his outfit received a call at about 1526 hours from one Cosmos Gyaw about the incidence and proceeded to the scene to put the fire off timely to prevent spreading to other classrooms.

He bemoaned the increasing rate of fire incidence in the Municipality since the beginning of the dry season despite several radio and public educational programmes.

DO II Ashong said the personnel could attend to more than four fire cases in a day and that was putting more stress on them and the little resources available.

He said within two weeks in January the Sunyani Command had recorded 14 cases of very terrible fire outbreaks that destroyed property worth thousands of Cedis.

DO II Ashong advised the general public to weed 10 metres away from their houses to serve as fire belts to prevent bush fires spreading to their houses.

“There is total ban on any burning activity in the Municipality” he emphasized.

DO II Ashong advised the general public, especially parents to supervise children engaging in any fire activity and to seek the assistance of fire officials or fire volunteers in all fire activities to prevent any destruction.

He asked the public not to shield people who set fires in their areas to cause destruction but must report them to the appropriate quarters for sanctions to deter others from carrying out such criminal activities.

According to Bush Fire Law 1990, PNDC Law 229, it is an offence for a person to safeguard fire offenders.

Source: GNA