By Nicholas Osei-Wusu
The Ghana Police Service is to evacuate all residents within its barracks at Apromase in the Ejisu Municipality in the Ashanti region to a temporary residence for safety.
According to the Service, nothing should be left to chance in safeguarding the lives of serving Officers and their families in ensuring they have a sound mind to perform their legally assigned duties.
The Inspector General of Police, Dr. George Akufo Dampare, gave the assurance while interacting with Police Personnel when he visited the scene of the fire outbreak at Apromase which claimed the lives of three persons, including a 36-year old Police Officer, Sergeant Asante Baafi Owusu.
Around midnight Sunday, January 16, 2023, wildfire engulfed the top floor of a two-story building within the Police Barracks at Apromase in the Ejisu Municipality of the Ashanti region.
Eye witness account has it that, the fire was first detected from one of the five apartments serving as the top floor of a two-storey building where a Police Officer with the Anti Robbery Squad Unit of the Ashanti Regional Police, Sergeant Asante Baafi Owusu and his immediate family lives.
The account suggests also that, the incident occurred at a time Sergeant Owusu and his wife and baby were fast asleep.
Before the Ghana National Fire Service could arrive and subdue the inferno, the destruction had been caused to both life and property.
The Fire Service used two fire engines to control the fire.
The fire killed Sergeant Owusu, his wife, Millicent Abena Akyaa and their four-month-old baby boy, Samuel Kwabena Baafi Nyamedo.
It has been learnt that the wife returned to the Barracks exactly a week of the incident from her mother where she went to deliver the baby boy and a naming ceremony held.
Also, the five apartments on the top floor of the building affected by the fire had been completely destroyed.
This is what necessitated the visit of the Inspector General of the Police, Dr. George Akufo Dampare who was joined by some Senior Staff of the Police Service from the National Headquarters and the Ashanti Regional Command to familiarize themselves with the reality of the disaster.
The IGP and his team toured the affected apartments to see the destruction and also interacted with Personnel of both the Ghana National Fire Service and Police Service on the ground.
Dr. Dampare extended the sympathy of the President, Vice President, Minister for the Interior and Police Management Board to the bereaved families for the misfortune. The IGP disclosed that, as the first remedial action, the Police Service has assigned a Clinical Psychologist to help assuage the bereaved families’ trauma suffered from the incident.
Dr. Dampare said, “all other residents in that Barracks are to be immediately evacuated to an alternative residential accommodation for safety to allow for a comprehensive structural integrity test of the buildings including those not physically identified to have been torched with the objective of protecting the lives of the occupants”.
He assured that the Police Service is ready to provide the best possible care to those affected by the fire in order for them to commit to the national course.