It has emerged that operators of the fuel tankers that caught fire around the Apremdo Market in the Western Region, killing a two-year-old boy on Wednesday, had no permit to run such business in the area.
According to sources, the fuel tankers were parked behind a filling station, awaiting orders from pump managers to discharge fuel into reservoirs when they sparked the inferno.
The cause of the fire is not immediately known, but some residents claimed that at about 3:00pm, they heard a huge blast from where the tankers were parked and realized the place was up in smoke.
Some of them also said the fire started in-between metal containers that were lined up around the two fuel tankers.
The Effia-Kwesimintsim Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Kojo Acquah, disclosed that the tanker operators had been operating at the blind side of the assembly.
He mentioned that some residents in the area had only been granted permits to erect temporary structures for businesses in the vicinity other than parking lots or fuel distribution points, saying emphatically that “as for the trucks they have not been given any permit.”
Mr. Acquah said a thorough investigation had commenced to track those whose negligence brought about the disaster.
Six metal containers that were used as mechanical spare-parts shop, drinking spot and eatery, a MoMo joint were all razed by the ravaging fire.
Boy Victim
A two-year-old boy who was sleeping inside one of the containers close to the scene was burnt beyond recognition.
It took personnel of the Ghana National Fire Service about 40 minutes to extinguish the inferno, with six fire tenders from Shama, Sekondi Naval Base and Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority.
DO11 Emmanuel Bonney, the Public Relations Officer of the Western Regional office of the Fire Service, said preliminary checks appear to indicate that the fire started from some scattered container stalls before it extended to the fuel tankers which were on standby to discharge fuel.
He cautioned the public against rushing to fire scenes to take pictures and converging around since they put their lives at risk.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi