A six-month-old baby boy was burnt to death by a fire in a house at Effiakuma, a suburb of Takoradi, over the weekend while his mother was away attending to the call of nature. The fire also destroyed property worth thousands of Ghana cedis. Not even the cries of the five-year-old brother of the six-month-old baby was enough to save the situation. Indeed, when the boy rushed out of the room crying, the co-tenants thought it was the result of punishment meted out to him by his mother. When they realised that he was calling for help, it was too late to save the baby from the ragging fire. Neighbours said they did not know the baby was in the room until his mother came back asking: "what about my baby?' I left both of them in the room." Although officials of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) arrived early enough to fight the fire, they could not have access to the fire point as a result of the crowded nature of the community. When the Daily Graphic got to the scene at about 6.30 a.m., the firemen had managed to remove the roofing of the building to avoid an explosion, while other members of the community helped with buckets of water to put out the fire. The only property left for the victim, Madam Limatu Sayid, were the blouse and the cover cloth she had on her when she left the house. According to the grief-stricken Madam Limatu, she woke up about 5.45 a.m. to visit the community toilet and the baby started crying. "I had wanted to send him to a neighbour, but after breastfeeding him, he slept again, with the elder brother lying beside him," she said. Madam Limatu said what was more painful was that on her way from the KVIP she saw the cloud of smoke, but little did she know that it was coming from her room and that the lives of her children were in danger. "I have lost everything, including my baby," she said, with tears flowing freely down her cheeks. The remains of the baby will soon be released to the family for burial after the police have completed their investigations. Other members of the community, co-tenants and elderly Muslim women took Madam Limatu to their home to console her. According to officials of the GNFS, the cause of the fire was not immediately known. Investigations are still ongoing. Source: Daily Graphic