K.K Sam (2nd right) making the presentation to the prison officers
The Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA) office of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) has responded to a request by the Western Regional Prisons Command on behalf of some officers of the Sekondi Prisons Barracks who suffered from a recent fire outbreak.
Properties worth thousands of cedis were totally burnt into ashes as a result of a fire outbreak at the Sekondi Central Prisons Barracks about a week ago, rendering three of the officers and their families homeless.
The cause of the fire outbreak was not immediately known but it was believed to have been triggered by an electrical fault at the 10-room block.
The inferno started at about 9:00pm on that fateful Wednesday at the Block ‘C’ of the Sekondi Central Prisons Barracks when most of the officers and their families were either asleep or getting ready to go to bed.
Fortunately, no life was lost as the officers managed to evacuate their family members to safety, but left their assets at the mercy of the fire until personnel from the Ghana National Fire Service got to the scene within minutes to put out the fire.
The STMA NADMO outfit donated items such as bags of rice, mosquito nets, mattresses, blankets, plastic buckets and bales of used clothing.
The Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE) for Sekondi-Takoradi, Anthony K.K. Sam, who made the presentation, was hopeful that the items would go a long way to help relieve the victims though they might not be commensurate with what they lost.
The Metropolitan NADMO Coordinator, James Obeng, appealed to the prison officers and other security services to ensure that they always had fire extinguishers at their barracks to help quench infernos.
The acting Regional Prisons Public Relations Officer (PRO), DSP Isaac Bisilki, commended the timely intervention by STMA NADMO office.
He mentioned that the victims who were occupying single rooms with a porch were heavily affected.
He noted that when the fire tender got to the barracks at about 9:30pm, two rooms were burning and it was getting to the third room, adding “but the firefighters managed to prevent the fire from spreading to the next room”.
“The affected officers lost radio and television sets, computers, fridges and some amount of money. We have serious accommodation challenges and this is adversely affecting officers and their families who have no peace of mind to focus on their core duties. We are therefore appealing to the authorities concerned to come to our aid”, he pleaded.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Sekondi