Wa, Nov.18, GNA - Fire on Monday swept through one of the warehouses of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture in Wa destroying some bags of sheanuts and grains belonging to International Business Group, based in Tamale.

The fire started from the surroundings of the regional offices of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and engulfed the warehouse whose environs were chunky with bushes. The fire was so intense that it affected a second warehouse containing assorted items including tractors, power tillers, motorbikes, computers, television sets, water pumping machines, fertilizers, furniture and rice belonging to the MOFA.

However, the timely intervention of a team from the Ghana National Fire Service prevented the fire from escalating. Mr Emmanuel Eledi, Upper West Regional Director of Food and Agriculture told newsmen that he was at a management meeting with his unit heads when they were told that fire had engulfed the warehouse at about 11.00 am.

He said the warehouse had been hired out to the International Business Group since last year to store sheanuts and other products, but because the items belonged to a private group, his outfit did not take interest to know the number and quantities. Mr Joseph Ahinsah, a Fire Officer at the Regional Offices of the Ghana National Fire Service who led the team to put out the fire, took the MOFA directorate on, saying that it was out of negligence that the fire was caused. He did not understand why they did not provide a fire belt or clean the surroundings of the warehouse knowing very well that the harmattan had began and that bush fires were inevitable. "Your workers should have also seen the fire when it was approaching the warehouse and should have prevented it from catching up with it," Mr. Ahinsah said. Mr Ahinsah appealed to directors of government departments and agencies to take good care of government property by ensuring that they were protected from fires.