Two toddlers have died after an inferno swept through a building at Moshie Zongo New junction, a suburb of Kumasi, in the Manhyia North sub-metro.

According to eyewitnesses, the fire started at about 8:30am Tuesday and ravaged properties including TV set, unspecified amount of money, clothes and other domestic wares.

Father of the two toddlers, Ibrahim Hafiz, told 3news.com that “we don’t know what really started that the fire. All we saw was that thick smoke was emanating from the apartment but when we rushed to the apartment, the fire had already taken over and we couldn’t save my two kids  who were sleeping in the room.”

The charred bodies of the two, aged 2 years and 5 months, have since been deposited at the morgue for preservation.

WHAT CAUSED STANDOFF BETWEEN FIRE FIGHTERS AND ZONGO RESIDENTS?

The Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) says an escalation of attacks on its fire crew by the residents made it impossible for them to douse the fire.

Speaking on Akoma FM‘s current affairs and political show GhanAkoma Wednesday, July 28, KNUST District Fire Commander DO3 Anthony Appiah explained that “the lives of the fire crew deployed to the scene were in danger and so there was no need staying there at the peril of my officer’s lives”.

He further explained that “the Moshie Zongo residents felt we delayed and therefore our delay caused the death of the two kids so they were wielding weapons to hurt my officers”.

“After they sensed the danger I withdrew them then they returned to base.”

The Fire Commander told host of the show Aduanaba Kofi Asante Ennin that “we have formally triggered the police complaint process to officially alert police what transpired”.

 |3news.com|Ghana