Bushfire Ravages 55 Houses At Asase Bonso

Bushfire destroyed 55 houses rendering about 450 people homeless at Asase Bonso community in the Sekyere Central portion of Afram Plains last Monday.

Properties including personal belongings and food crops worth thousands of Ghana cedis were destroyed.

According to an eyewitness, Mr Bismark Amponsah, a teacher, the teachers detected the fire in a nearby bush around 1130 hours while they were in classrooms but soon spread to the village at the time almost the people had left for farm.

He said sensing danger, some of the teachers led the pupils to the Afram River for protection and with the help of two other people, they tried to control the fire with water but it soon got out of hand and spread to the entire village.

Briefing the press, Nana Asumadu Sarpong, the Odikro of the village, said because of periodic bushfire in the area during dry season, they had created fire-belt around the entire village and could not understand the cause of the fire which originated from a nearby bush.

He described the situation as unbearable as most of the 700 inhabitants of the village had completely lost everything.

He appealed for assistance, especially roofing sheets, clothing, food items, footwear, cooking utensils, cement and tents for temporary accommodation to enable the homeless now occupying classrooms to leave for classes to resume.

Mr Fuseini Donkor, the District National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) Coordinator presented two bags of rice, some biscuits, sachet water and soft drinks for the school pupils and assured the community of assistance from the Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council and the central government.