Ghana’s second-largest city, Kumasi has recorded 16 fire outbreaks as of January 14, 2021, officials said on Thursday.

Six out of the cases –including a recent outbreak at Dagomba Line, a popular slum in the Ashanti Regional –have been described “major fires”, according to officials of the Ghana National Fire and Rescue Service.

Chief Fire Officer Ekow Blankson gave the details to the media during a tour of affected areas. He described the situation as unfortunate adding: “we are trying to examine the whole process”.

He said concerted efforts are needed to prevent such unfortunate disasters.

Nearly 6,000 fire outbreaks were recorded in Ghana between January 1 and December 21, 2020.

The Ghana National Fire and Rescue Service said the number of outbreaks recorded represents a 4per cent increase of what was witnessed in the country within the same period in 2019.

The Service said the majority of the fires were due to domestic incidents that occurred within the 3-week lockdown period in the Greater Accra and Greater Kumasi areas.

“Statistics available from our records puts fire outbreaks from January to 21st December this year at 5966 representing a 4.9 percentage rise in fire outbreaks compared to a figure of 5673 same periods in 2019. This is as a result of many domestic activities engaged in by a large number of people during the lockdown period in the wake of the COVID 19 pandemic”, the service said in a statement.