The man in a pensive mood
A family lost four members after a gas explosion around the Trade Fair Center in Accra last Thursday, December 22, 2016.
Three others are battling for their lives at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital. The only one safe from the fatalities or casualties is 38-year old Mawuli Addo, who lives at Nungua in Accra.
He is living a painful reality in a season of good cheers – Christmas.
In an interview with Joy News’ Beatrice Adu, Mawuli Addo was close to tears. He has lost his 60-year-old mother and his brother’s 10-year-old son and two other family members.
On the day of the explosion, Thursday, Mawuli says he combed a number of hospitals but gave up at 2am when his search yielded no results.
He however, received a phone call from his sister the following morning who told him, their auntie was at the 37 Military Hospital but had died.
His auntie owned a block factory around the St. Louis gas station. That fateful morning, his mother who lived at Achimota had come over to help her sister.
His mother was caught up in the explosion and was rushed to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital. He remembers seeing her severely burnt mother in thick bandages.
‘She could hear us speak but struggled to respond’ he recalled a heart-breaking moment. The mother passed away on Christmas Day.
Mawuli said days before, he had called her mother informing her, he wants to come over to Achimota to deliver her Christmas presents. His mother told him, she was staying over at his auntie’s place so he should hold on, until she returns home and then Mawuli can come over with his gifts. But alas, it was not to be.
Mawuli explained that his brother’s 10-year old twin son also perished. The other twin is a casualty and is receiving treatment. A friend to their mother also perished.
Mawuli is now catering for three other family members battling for their lives at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital.
“I have never heard anything like this happen in one house before. It is terrible,” he told Beatrice.