Fire yesterday gutted more than 2,000 structures at Sodom and Gomorrah, the fourth such disaster to hit the sprawling slum in the central business district of Accra this year.
Properties running into hundreds of Ghana cedis were destroyed in the process but no causalities were reported because most of the slum dwellers had taken advantage of the apparent halt in the Accra decongesting exercise to engage various types of trade outside.
The fire, which started at 2.30pm, raged on for more than two hours, rapidly sweeping through the wooden structures, as personnel of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) could not get access to the place.
The squatters were forced, under the circumstances, to improvise in fighting the fire by breaking down some of the structures and pouring water on the fire. They had difficulty accessing water to bring the fire under control because some of the pipelines had been disconnected because they had been illegally connected. Besides, the wind kept changing the direction of the fire until a measure of control was attained around 5.30pm.
Most of the squatters were in town when the fire started. When they learnt of the fire, they rushed back to the slum, only to see their structures in ashes. Some of them, especially the women, were seen sobbing.
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