The Chief Fire Officer of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), Daniella Mawusi Ntow Sarpong, has described the Tuesday night inferno at Katamanto in Accra as one of the most challenging her team has faced in recent times.

Speaking to Joy Prime from the scene, she revealed that the Ghana National Fire Service received a distress call around 1:00 a.m. on Tuesday and responded swiftly.

Read also: Fire guts shops at Kantamanto Tazani Lane; no casualties reported — GNFS

However, heavy traffic and the uncooperative behaviour of some members of the public severely hampered firefighting efforts.

"It was really difficult, we realised there are two containers involved but the things were packed to the brim in bills and it made it very difficult to get access. The road network too is very bad, you can see vehicles, human beings, traffic and all that so it wasn't easy for us to get access to the fire scene," she noted.

She also disclosed that although a fire hydrant is located close to the site, private individuals had built structures over it, rendering it inaccessible.

As a result, firefighters were compelled to travel to Adabraka to fetch water, a delay which compounded the already difficult situation.

"Unfortunately, we have to travel from here to Adabraka but we realised that two shops away from where the fire occurred was the hydrant and they had built a container on it. They built on it and the person is selling the water, it is very worrying," she noted.

She called for the prosecution of those involved, "I think we have to take the person on, we shouldn't leave the person like that, an action should be taken to deterred people from doing that."

As at the time of this report on Tuesday morning, personnel from the Ghana National Fire Service were finalising efforts to completely extinguish the blaze and prevent further spread.