A midnight house fire on Monday killed a family of three, including a pregnant woman, at Ohwim Amanfrom in Kumasi.
Philomena Osei and her two children, all boys, were trapped in their rooms by the inferno which was believed to have started around 11:30pm.
Their charred remains have since been deposited at the morgue of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital.
Reports said the mother is 37 years old, while the boys are aged seven and nine years.
They continuously cried for help until they were consumed by the fire, DAILY GUIDE gathered.
Fortunately, 15-year-old daughter of the pregnant woman, who was in another room, managed to escape the fire.
The girl was said to have attempted rescuing her mother and brothers, but the metallic door to their room was too hard for her to break in, beside the severity of the inferno.
The Assemblyman for the area, Erastus Ebo Boison, said the fire started from the room where the pregnant woman, who is a seamstress, was sleeping with her two children.
According to him, the girl raised the alarm after she was awoken by the deafening cries of her mother and siblings.
The Assemblyman said some residents attempted to douse the fire, whilst awaiting the arrival of firefighters.
Mr. Boison said the firefighters managed to quench the blaze, but that was after the family had been consumed.
Kpassa
In a related development, Fred Duodu reports that a gas explosion at Kpassa in the Nkwanta North District of the Oti Region on August 6, killed four persons and injured three others, including a radio presenter with Ke FM, Seth Kwaku Mensah Akroboto.
The explosion, felt across the community, was accompanied by fire reaching high into the night sky and scourging the radio presenter and six others at their home.
Manager of Ke FM, William Laportey, said all were occupants of the house where the gas explosion occurred, and the landlord and his wife as well as a nurse were among the victims.
According to him, the explosion occurred after a leakage of the gas cylinder in the compound house.
He narrated that Kwaku Mensah Akroboto, popularly known on radio as KMA, and the landlord, who suffered severe burns, were later transferred to the Burns Unit of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (KTH) in Accra, but the landlord died later.
Two of the victims, including the wife of the landlord, sent to the Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH) for treatment, also died.
The nurse, who was transferred to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi, had also passed on, he recounted.
Mr. Laportey said one victim, who was sent to the St Joseph’s Hospital at Nkwanta and another person was taken to the Somaca Clinic at Kpassa, were still on admission.
Laportey revealed that a committee had been set up in the Kpassa District to coordinate the efforts toward supporting the victims.
Meanwhile, the Ghana Journalists Association through the Volta/Oti branch has sympathised with the victims and their families and wished them a speedy recovery.
The Association has appealed to the media in the Oti and Volta regions to use their platforms to help raise support for the victims.
FROM I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr., Kumasi
