Tears flowed as wives, children, relatives, friends and sympathizers of seven people who died after sustaining various degrees of burns when a fire gutted a pre-mix fuel distribution centre at Brawire, a suburb of Axim in the Western Region, on June 22, 2012 were buried yesterday.
Those buried were Benjamin Cudjoe, 40; Anthony Amissah, 47; Dominic Dawda, 42; Joshua Nyamekye, 40; J.S. Addaquaye, 46; Samuel Kwesie, 21 and 55-year-old Justice Ackah, who were all initially airlifted to Korle Bu Teaching Hospital for treatment after the accident.
Four other victims who were burnt beyond recognition were buried a day after the accident, while a 15-year-old boy whose name was given as Egya Kofi Ackon was reported dead at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital yesterday morning, thus bringing the death toll to 12.
Clad in funeral clothes, some government officials, led by Paul Evans Aidoo, Western Regional Minister and his deputy, Emelia Arthur, as well as Nii Amasa Namoale, Deputy Minister of Agriculture in charge of fisheries, Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah, Deputy Minister of Energy and MP for Ellembele, Catherine Afeku, MP for Evalue-Gwira including some executives of political parties thronged the funeral grounds to
express their sympathy to the bereaved families.
According to the regional minister, there should be no division among Ghanaians since disasters had no political colours and thanked the people of Axim, especially the medical staff of Axim, the Ghana Fire Service and the Ghana Private Road Transport Union, for the timely assistance they offered the victims that day.
�We should live first as Ghanaians and should not let politics divide us. I was glad the people in Axim demonstrated this when the disaster occurred. In like manner, let us live in peace and be one another keeper in all aspects of life,� he added.
The government donated GH�1,000 to each of the seven bereaved families and also bore the deceased�s hospital bills, coffins and shrouds cost.
Awulae Attibrukusu III, Paramount Chief of Lower Axim Traditional Council and President of the Western Regional House of Chiefs, asked the bereaved families to take heart and take solace in God.
He prevailed upon the government to establish well-constructed premix fuel stations and train some personnel to handle the commodity to avert such accidents.
He also suggested that there should be no middlemen, especially those who did not own fishing canoes, adding, �There should be a mechanism where too many people don�t gather to scramble for pre-mix fuel�.
Rev. Father Paul Awuah, chairman of Axim Local Council of Churches, led the clergy to offer prayers for the deceased at the Axim Victoria Park.
It will be recalled that disaster struck when an apartment at Brawire, a suburb of Axim, in which a group of fishermen were scrambling for premix fuel where the commodity was kept, allegedly exploded as the wiring system of an electric generator they were using to pump it ignited.
Four people were burnt beyond recognition and 25 others sustained various degrees of injury, with those in critical condition airlifted to the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, while others were admitted at Axim and Effia-Nkwanta Hospital for treatment.
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