Part of the National Chief Imam's house was on Thursday gutted by a fire which swept from one of the rooms in the compound.

Even before personnel of the Ghana National Fire Service arrived at the scene the youth of the Fadama area where the Imam lives had fought to bring the fire under control.

An eyewitness said one of the young men in the house is in the habit of bringing petrol into the house against persistent counselling from the Imam and others. On the fateful day he used a heater to boil some water and a container nearby with petrol in it caught fire and aided the inferno which destroyed a number of items. Water used in bringing the water under control was seen all over the place at the end of it all. Sympathisers were seen trooping to the house of the Islamic cleric afterwards.