Over 200 structures razed by fire at Dagombaline in Kumasi

Over 200 residents at Dagombaline, a slum in the Kumasi Metropolis of the Ashanti region have been rendered homeless following a fire outbreak in the area.

The fire is reported to have started at about 5:30 pm on Friday, February 14, 2020.

On the day many marked St. Valentine’s Day/ Chocolate Day, the affected people are counting their losses in grief.

The slum is occupied mainly by scrap dealers and female head porters popularly known as ‘kayayei’.

Bed materials, personal belongings, clothes and other items worth tens of thousands of Ghana cedis are estimated to have been destroyed.

According to Kumasi FM’s Elisha Adarkwah, an eyewitness account suggests that a neighbour was burning rubbish earlier in the day which went out of control spreading to nearby wooden structures.

The fire quickly swelled affecting the high-tension electricity poles in the area and officials of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) had to be called in to disconnect power.

As at 7:30 pm,  firefighters who were called in were still battling to put out the inferno.