<<Print>>

The Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) deployed 95 fire fighthers to fight the fire outbreak at the Goil Filling Station at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra last Wednesday night which claimed more than 100 lives.

With about three fire engines and a turntable ladder, the personnel from various stations in Accra took about five hours to bring the inferno under control.

The fire team deployed to the disaster site around 10 p.m. found it difficult to contain the spread of the fire at the initial stages due to the intensity of the floods.

The difficulty
“Fire engines had to be parked at a distance for personnel to walk through the running water to the disaster site,” the Public Relations Officer of the GNFS, Prince Billy Anaglate, told the Daily Graphic.

He said firemen had to risk their lives to pass through the running water because access to the disaster site was very difficult.

As a result of the fire, he said, 15 vehicles were burnt, while some buildings, including two different storey buildings sited close to the fuel station, were affected by the ravaging fire.

He explained that fire officers were able to rescue about 10 people who were on top of the storey buildings, saying, however, that some sustained various degrees injury in the rescue process.

At a pharmacy shop near the station, he said, burnt bodies lay in the water that had entered the shop, while some bodies were covered by debris.

What happened?
Explaining how the fire might have started, Prince Anaglate said it was possible that the underground fuel storage tank at the station was not properly closed and so when the flood started water entered the tank, forcing the oil to rise up above the water.

According to science experts, oil and water are immiscible.

“Therefore, since it is running water, fire from more than100 metres away could have triggered the fire outbreak at the filling station.

“In that instance, the fire ravaged properties so fast because the oil which was above the water had spread to parts of the filling station

“Those who were seeking shelter from the floods at the fuel station became the victims, while nearby buildings got affected,” he said.