Fire Wednesday morning gutted a four-room apartment and destroyed property worth thousands of cedis at Shama Junction in the Shama District of the Western Region.

Victims were visibly traumatized as they could not salvage any of their belongings due to the intensity of the fire.

Speaking to the Daily Graphic, the DCE for Shama, Mr. Enoch Appiah who visited the scene, said the fire resulted from an overloaded substandard electric extension board.

“When we arrived at the scene, the owner of the building came and confessed that they failed to switch off the extension board in one of the rooms which had the extension board melted and resulted in the fire,” he said.

The DCE explained that the fire started in one of the rooms and later spread to the other three rooms and the kitchen and that but for the swift response from the Fire Service in Shama and the regional headquarters in Sekondi, more buildings would have been consumed by the fire.

He said fortunately, the families occupying the building, including children evacuated to safety at about 8:30am.

An eyewitness, Effo Akorligah Kwofie, who spoke to the Daily Graphic said even though the Fire Service responded immediately after they were contacted the fire had caused serious havoc to the building and property.

When the Daily Graphic contacted the Ghana National Fire Service, officials said they were still investigating the cause of the fire.

In another development in the district, a fuel tanker overturned and spilled over 17,000 litres of fuel on the Takoradi-Cape Coast-Accra highway at about 11pm on Tuesday.

The DAF Truck GR 4942 - K was carrying the product from Tema in the Greater Accra Region to the Western Region.

According to the police, the driver and mate sustained serious injuries and were rushed to the Effia-Nkwanta Regional Hospital in a critical condition.