Correspondence from Western Region:

A cold store and hairdressing salon have been completely razed down by fire at Wassa Akropong near the main lorry station destroying all property.

According to eyewitnesses, the fire started from the hairdressing salon which spread to the cold store.

There was a gas explosion while the fire was burning.

Because the Wassa Akropong fire tender had been out of commission for about three weeks now it took two hours for the fire service and residents to douse the fire which started around 2:30an on Thursday dawn.

The fire service used fire extinguishers while residents also brought in lots of water to manage the fire.

According to residents, if the fire tender was around, owners of the affected businesses would have salvaged some of their properties.

For them, the municipality is endowed with lots of rich people and businesses which can help in the acquisition of a new fire tender to serve the municipality.

They called on the Municipal Chief Executive, Hon Helena Appiah to work hard in getting the fire tender for the municipality fixed.

Speaking in an interview, DO1 Emmanuel Laryeh, Fire Commander Amenfi East Municipality expressed worry of the attitude of residents who reigned insults on the service for dousing the fire quick.

He urged residents to exercise patience in a fire situation like this so that the appropriate things are done in order the fire under control adding that if ‘our car did not break down, in less than three minutes, we would have put it off’.

DO1 Emmanuel Larye advised citizens of Wassa Amenfi East municipality to protect themselves from all things that can cause fire in their homes and businesses because if there is any fire outbreak, it will be difficult to put it off since the fire tender is out of commission.

He called on stakeholders to come to their aid in fixing the fire tender in order to attend to fire incidents in the municipality.