Three-month-old baby burnt to death

A three-month-old baby has been burnt to death by bushfire at Afokpakope, near Kpetoe in the Adaklu-Anyigbe District.

A middle-aged woman also suffered severe burns from the fire, which consumed three thatched-roofed houses in its trail.

Mr Joy Agbleze, Public Relations Officer of the Volta Regional Directorate of the Ghana Fire Service, who made this known, said the police received a distress call around about the fire but by the time a fire tender got to the community in about 15 minutes, the blaze had gutted the community, killing the child and burning down the houses.

Mr Agbleze attributed the cause of the fire to excessive desire by some “selfish people” for game and firewood.

The Adaklu-Anyigbe District has so far recorded 21 bushfires, the highest in the region over the last year.

Mr Agbleze urged political leaders, chiefs and opinion leaders in the District to take measures to reduce the occurrence of bushfires in the area.

He also expressed worry about increasing incidence of fire disasters in the first four weeks of the year in the region and suggested the establishment of taskforces in the communities to investigate and cause of the fires and arrest those culpable.