Techiman showroom for Latex Foam in flames

 

Fire has gutted a two-storey building at the Techiman market in the Bono East Region.

The structure serves as a showroom for Latex Foam Limited in the area.

Officials of the Ghana National Fire Service spend more than an hour to extinguish the inferno.

It is currently unclear what caused the fire.

Meanwhile, Citi News understands that no casualties have been recorded.

While briefing the media, ACFO George Anim Frimpong, the Bono East Fire Commander said they received a distress call around 12:55 pm on Monday, April 12, 2021, “So we quickly dispatched our manpower appliance to the market”.

“When we got there, we realised that the fire was too thick and will take some time to extinguish it, so we quickly called on the Nkoranza fire station to also dispatch its appliance. We then relayed to Wenchi and Kintampo fire stations to also come in to support. We also relayed to Ghana North. They also had two fire tenders which they brought on board. So in all, we had six fire tenders on the ground,” he said.

ACFO Frimpong noted that they were able to douse the fire within an hour and twenty-five minutes.

He added that ten shops were affected by the inferno but said investigations are still ongoing to ascertain the cause of the fire.

“We realised that the fire did not start from the Latex Foam premises. It started at a building adjacent to it. So we are yet to ascertain the cause of the fire. It took us 50 minutes to bring the fire under control and one hour twenty minutes to extinguish it. In all, we had 80 men on the ground. So far, the fire affected 10 stores. It is under investigation,” he added.

ACFO Frimpong however complained that it took them a long time to put out the fire because there was no water in the fire hydrants close by.

“As we speak, there is no water in the hydrants, so we had to rely on water from a nearby hotel’s swimming pool. There was a fire hydrant close by, but we couldn’t get any water from it.”