The recent fire incident which reduced to ashes properties worth millions of cedis at the North Industrial Area in Accra has ignited a debate over whether the public has the right to know the cause of fire incidents across the country. The incident which happened on August 1, 2012 Left several warehouses, a restaurant, guest house all burnt down with a nearby filling station saved by a whisker. The fire saw the largest ever deployment of equipment and personnel, an operation that involved a total of 17 fire tenders, including two of the sophisticated turntables all recently acquired for the Fire Service, 50 fire fighters and more than 120,000 gallons of water. The fire led to the disruption of electricity to many homes for several days with the public eager to find out the actual cause of the fire. It is not the first time the public has demanded to know the cause of a fire incident. On February 14, 2010, the Ridge residence of former president John Rawlings was consumed by fire. So were the offices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and parts of the Information Ministry. In all cases the Fire Service began investigations but it appeared they never concluded those investigations. Even if they did, the public has been left in the dark as to findings of those investigations. The Chief Fire Officer, Brigadier General John Bosco Guyiri, told Joy News Editor, Israel Laryea, the Service will never make public its findings on fire incidents because it could affect the private interests of the property owners who were affected in the fire. According to him, per the regulations of the Service, they are not obliged to disclose the cause of fire incidents. He could not readily provide details of the exact regulation and when pushed to do so by Israel Laryea, he deferred to the Deputy Director, Legal, of the Fire Service to provide the regulation that prevents the outcome of an investigation into a fire incident to be made public. The Deputy Director, Legal, Kweku Ohene Obiri, admitted there was no such regulation but was quick to add that administratively it was imprudent to disclose the findings of a fire report. Whilst he would not wish to contradict the professional opinion of the legal officer, Brigadier General John Bosco Guyiri stated there might be a regulation somewhere that prevents findings of causes of fire to be made public. Both of them maintained the Service has a duty to protect the privacy of the property owner who is grieving from a fire incident. So, in the case of the North Industrial Area fire incident, does a nearby resident who slept in the dark for several days because his electricity supply was affected by the fire have a right to know what caused the fire? Play the attached audio for excerpts of the interviews.