GBC fire: Combustible items cause of fire outbreak - Anaglate

The Head of Public Relations of the Ghana National Fire Service Divisional Officer Grade One Prince Billy Anaglate says his initial and preliminary observation of the fire that ravaged the stores of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation at Broadcasting House in Accra shows that it could have been caused by the way items were packed from the walls and to the ceiling.

“That alone can give spontaneous ignition. These other items that have not been segregated, when you have the lowest combustible materials, bringing them together, you don’t allow air even to get in to cool the temperature of those items, could also be a cause of it.” He added.

Speaking in an interview with GBCONLINE, he said an electrical gadget might also have been left on and that might have overheated and caused the fire.

Mr. Anaglate further explained that even though a very recent inspection had declared GBC safe, they were not taken to the stores.

He said they declared GBC safe based the percentage of critical observation.

There was no information on the stores in that observation.

According to the Divisional Officer he received a call around 6:50 and quickly dispatched a tender but due to their observation in the inspection, they quickly followed up with two tenders that managed to bring the fire under control within an hour and prevented it from spreading to adjoining structures and completely destroying other items in the inner parts of the Stores.

Mr. Anaglate stated that they wanted to salvage what has not been touched so “…were careful not to use water to damage other things in the room,”

They therefore had to break in through some of the windows and retrieve some of the items.

He explained that among some of the recommendations they made from the recent inspection was for the Corporation to take another look at the wiring system.. The report said they needed to be changed because of age.

The Fire Service found out from the inspection that some of the old surface wiring had been painted.

This, Mr. Anaglate said conceals cracks in the old wires. He also observed that the hydrants on the premises were not working and this is what informed the dispatch of three tenders to bring the fire under control quickly.

The fire personnel stayed overnight to ensure that the fire was completely put out.

Earlier on RADIO GHANA’S current affairs programme BEHIND THE NEWS, he had promised that they will investigate where the fire personnel posted to Broadcasting House were during the fire.

He said that he had spotted one when the personnel came with the tenders.

The fire at the stores had been noticed by some staff on duty around 6:30 in the evening of Friday.