The entire Korle Bu Police Barracks in Accra has been thrown into a state of mourning.
It follows the death of a baby, a 13year old barracks girl, Jennifer Nkah, and her 60year old grandmother Bridget Gakpetor late Wednesday night by a raging inferno.
The fire which gutted a whole block and affected four rooms with 16 occupants started in the course of last night’s rain around 11 pm when the entire barracks was almost asleep.
It is not clear what sparked the fire but various eyewitnesses account to have it that the family of four was trapped in the room but the mother of the one-week-old baby who is in her early 30s, Abigail Gakpetor whose husband, a policeman, Francis is on a peacekeeping mission in Somalia managed to escape, leaving her baby, the 13year old daughter and her mother trapped in the room.
Her calls for help were what attracted neighbours and other residents to come to their rescue.
But even before the three trapped in the room could be brought to safety, the 60year old grandmother had been burnt the 13year old girl burnt beyond recognition with the baby sustaining a deep cut in the thigh.
It took the bravery of some policemen and civilians to save them from being burnt into ashes by breaking the glass sliding window at the back of one of the rooms.
The 60year old grandmother and 13year old girl were declared Brought In Dead (BID) at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.
It took the intervention of a team of fire officers and residents to bring the fire under control after managing to get the Electricity Company of Ghana(ECG) to cut the power supply to the area.
Inspector-General of Police (IGP), George Akuffo Dampare later in the morning led members of the Police Management Board (POMAB), the Greater Accra regional police commander, DCOP Iddrisu Seidu Lansah, Divisional police commander to commiserate with the affected families.
For now, the police leadership is looking for temporary accommodation to house the affected families whilst the affected policemen and their families are counting the cost, wondering how they would start all over again having lost everything to the fire.
By Charles Takyi-Boadu