A fire last Monday afternoon gutted some shops on the Opera Cinema building in Accra Central.
Assortments of items whose cost run into thousands of cedis were consumed by the fire.
When he was contacted yesterday for an update on the fire which was only completely put out yesterday morning, the Head of Public Relations at the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) headquarters, ACFOI Timothy Affum said the fire was detected by personnel of the Service and quickly a tender was dispatched to the scene.
“At 1634 hrs the Accra Central Fire Station during a routine watch over the horizon (outward look) detected smoke around the Opera Cinema area and by 1635 a fire tender was on the scene,” he said.
The situation, he said, was beyond a tender and so the regional headquarters came in with extra tenders. “In all we mobilised 13 appliances, made up of tenders, ambulance and a rescue vehicle. Ten of the tenders were from the GNFS and the Armed Forces supported us with one tender.
“The GTBank whose offices are on the ground floor of the building and the Bank of Africa lost some items to the fire.
“The upper floor of the building which contained mostly electrical items was destroyed by the fire. The ground floor contained bags and sandals. Accessibility to the warehouses was difficult,” he stated.
The PR Head advised shop owners to segregate the items in their warehouses. “Traders should be mindful about how they keep items in warehouses. Light items should be kept together with spaces between them. There should be spacing between the items kept in warehouses so that in case of fire it would not be easy for the stuff on the other rows to be consumed by the inferno. The absence of such arrangement accounted for the loss of items on the first floor.
“Shop and warehouses owners should keep smoke detectors and alarm systems,” he added.
GTBank Statement
Management of GTBank following the fire outbreak issued a statement acknowledging the incident, “There has been a fire outbreak in some parts of the Greater Accra Central Business District, specifically the Opera Square market enclave. The GTBank Opera Square branch resides in this same location, directly opposite Melcom Shopping Centre and was partially affected by the fire outbreak.
“All staff and customers in the branch at the time of the incident are safe and well. To enable us restore the branch to a great state for effective operations, we wish to inform you that the Opera Square branch will be closed until further notice. You will be duly notified when operations resume.”
The Opera Cinema in the heyday of cinemas in the country was one of the most frequented entertainment centres and belongs to the Captan Group.
By A.R. Gomda