Takoradi, March 25 -GNA-The Holyfire International Church in Takoradi was gutted by fire on Friday evening destroying furniture, musical instruments, books, computers and accessories worth several millions of cedis. The Reverend Anthony Penni, Resident Minister quoting an eyewitness said the fire started at about 1830 hours. He said there was bellows of thick smoke and fire followed by a loud explosion.

It took personnel of the Ghana National Fire Service more than three hours to put the fire under control.

The Church share the same compound with a cocoa buying company and when the Fire Service personnel arrived on the scene they could not gain immediate access to the compound because some cargo and articulated trucks loaded with cocoa had blocked access to the Church.

Rev. Penni said there were no injuries as there was no Church activity going on at the time. Some residents told the Ghana News Agency that there had been intermittent sparks of fire from some of the overhead electric cables.

This was promptly reported to personnel of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and electricity to the area was disconnected. When it was restored about three days ago, there was power fluctuation resulting in the destruction of bulbs and some gadgets and this was reported to the ECG. Officials of the Fire Service said investigations were on-going to find the cause of the fire. b