Residents of Kromoase New Site in the Ashanti Regional capital Kumasi on Tuesday dawn watched helplessly as four shops and a car were completely ravaged in a fire outbreak after several failed attempts to reach the fire service on phone. The inability to get to the fire service was caused by technical challenges encountered by its service provider, Vodafone.

It took the bravery of some residents close to 3 hours to bring the fire under control after realizing the lines weren’t working. Two siblings who were asleep in one of the shops at the time of the incident narrowly escaped unhurt.

Ultimate Radio’s reporter who was at the scene managed to call the Regional Public Relations Officer of the Ghana National Fire Service on his MTN personal line. He however got back later to confirm he wasn’t getting through to any fire office in the region. The Public Relations Officer, Fire Officer Desmond Ackah later in the morning apologized for the occurrence blaming the outcome on poor communication network. “I must apologize for us not being able to turn up.

Unfortunately early this morning we had problems with our lines especially with that of Vodafone. I received the call and tried getting to the nearest fire station and all the other stations but the calls weren’t just going through,” he stated.

Mr. Ackah also appealed to residents to as a matter of urgency report all fire incidents directly to their office due to network failure.

He said the communication service provider, Vodafone was currently battling with a network problem and the lines would be restored after the problem was rectified.

Meanwhile officials of the Telecoms Giant told Ultimate Radio early Tuesday morning they were locked up in a meeting finding a quick resolution to the system failure.