RESIDENTS OF Asafo in Kumasi were thrown into a state of mourning after a 13-year-old boy was sadly killed by fire on Friday dawn.
The deceased, identified as Koo Emma, was reportedly trapped in a wooden structure where he was sleeping when the fire started around 4:00am.
Koo Emma’s father alerted people who rushed to the scene, screaming that his son had been trapped in the wooden structure.
What caused the fire is not yet known, but eyewitnesses suspected that a lit candle might have accidentally started the fire.
The 13-year-old boy was heard crying for help as the fire roasted him alive but nobody, including his own father, could pass through the fire to save him.
The charred body of Koo Emma had since been dumped at the morgue in a medical facility in Kumasi for autopsy to determine the cause of death.
Eyewitnesses added that the fire started in the wooden shop where Koo Emma was sleeping and the fire travelled at top speed, causing destruction.
Within some few minutes, all the nearby metal containers and wooden shops were flattened by the fire, resulting in massive destruction to properties.
The fire reportedly consumed about four shops which contained quantities of paints, lubricants and other materials that were being kept in them.
A distressed call was eventually placed to the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) in the city, who sent their men to the scene to put out the fire.
BY Joe Awuah Jnr.