Sunyani, Jan. 22, GNA - Fire destroyed an eleven-room compound house at Hwidiem in Asunafo district at the weekend, displacing all the occupants.

Assistant Chief Officer Alexander Marthels Hughes, Brong Ahafo Regional Director of the Ghana Fire Service (GFS), who disclosed this to the Ghana News Agency said the occupants lost all their belongings to the fire.

One of the occupants, a mobile phone dealer, had his 20 million cedis burnt.

The chief fire officer said residents indicated that the fire started around 0700 hours and people around tried to put it off, but could not do so called in the Fire Service about two hours later. "It took my men about an hour to bring the fire under control as they found it very difficult to enter the area, which was choked with all kinds of wooden structures", he added.

ACO Hughes said it was detected that the outbreak was the result of an electrical fault.

"The rate at which fire cases are reported in the region is so alarming", he noted, stating that 24 bushfires had been recorded in the Sunyani Municipality alone since the beginning of this year, against 26 recorded in the whole of 2005.

He advised the public to be cautious about the way they managed fire at home, stressing that the (harmattan) season was so intense that the least mistake could lead to disaster.

ACO Hughes said a task force, comprising personnel of the military, NADMO and the Ghana Fire Service had been set up by the Municipal Assembly to move around to check against the people setting indiscriminate fires in the bush.

"Those who will be arrested would be put before the law courts to face the full rigours of the law and to deter others from committing such acts", he cautioned.