Fire Engulfs Aged Man's House

The desire of a 90-year-old man, Teye Abraham, and his 82 year-old wife, Abla Agbashi, to celebrate the Christmas and New Year in happiness at Trio, a farming community near Suhum, turned sour when the house in which they lived was destroyed by fire in the night of December 20.

The nonagenarian who was in bed with his octogenarian wife at about 10 p.m. on that fateful day when the fire started, first managed to jump through the inferno with parts of his body burnt but his sleeping cloth covering him was intact.

 The wife, who followed him, however fell in the fire and sustained serious burns and both had to be rushed to the Regional Hospital at Koforidua where Teye Abraham was treated and discharged leaving the wife who was still on admission as of December 27.

Also destroyed in the two-room apartment popularly known as chamber-and-hall were personal effects of the two, as well as important documents.

Although total cost of the building together with the personal effects could not be immediately determined, it is estimated to be in thousands of Ghana cedis.

Speaking in tears at the house, Mr Teye said it was his wife who first realised that both the hall and chamber were in flames so she woke him up and both jumped through the fire.

He said Abla Agbashi, however, fell in the fire and had to be pulled out by members of the household living in adjacent rooms and other sympathisers gathered at the scene.

Mr Anthony Avagar, the eldest child of the couple, said he suspected that somebody had intentionally set the house ablaze, since it contained no inflammable substances that could catch fire.

He also wondered how fire could engulf the two rooms at the same time.

Meanwhile the police at Nankese are investigating the incident.

Story by A. Kofoya-Tetteh