At least one person has been reported dead in the ravaging fire at the Kokompe market at Darkuman in Accra, Saturday night.

The deceased was said to have been electrocuted when the incident occurred.  No further information regarding the identity of the victim has been released to the public. 

The fire which started at about 10pm, swept through about 50 shops destroying goods worth millions of Ghana Cedis. 

The National Fire Service is yet to establish the cause of the ferocious fire, but residents attribute it to ongoing load sharing exercise by the power authorities. 

Owners of the affected shops could do little as they stood and watched their investments burn in flames.

The market is a major trading area operated mainly by auto mechanics and vehicular spare parts dealers.  

Kumasi

In a separate incident, another fire gutted parts of a Shell fuel station at Asokwa in Kumasi, the Ashanti Regional capital also on Saturday. The inferno destroyed two fuel pumps and a private vehicle.

The “Ford Escape” vehicle with registration number AS 4567-14 went to the fuel station to fill the petroleum product when the fire started from beneath the car.

The vehicle which belonged to one Paul Relph Odom, a worker at Saint Martin’s Hospital in Agroyesum, was completely burnt. 

This is the second recorded incident in two days in the city after a two-storey building was ravaged by fire on Friday evening.

But swift intervention of personnel from the regional fire station at Atonsu could not douse the inferno until reinforcement from Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly fire station.

Station Officer at the Regional Fire Station, Dominic Kumi said, the fire was brought under control within thirty minutes.

Dominic Kumi is suspecting, the cause of the fire could be the failure of the driver to turn off the engine during the filing of the fuel.

Meanwhile, the Central Regional Fire Service wants institutions and traders in the region to avail themselves of education on fire safety. 

According the Regional Fire Safety Officer, Mark Awotwe-Quaye, this has become necessary to reduce the incidences of fire outbreak in the region - especially in the wake of increasing fire outbreaks in the country.