No fewer than 100 people have died in a fire at a petrol station in Ghana’s capital, Accra, the fire service says. Most of the dead people were persons taking refuge at the filling station to escape the drench from the downpour. Fire service officials said the flood from the rain mingled with petrol suspected to have floated from a likely leakage at the station and flowed far away to a naked fire which triggered the conflagration.
The fire started as people in the city are trying to cope with two days of heavy rain, which has left many homeless and without power.
The flooding hampered rescue efforts and may have led to the fire, the BBC’s Sammy Darko reports from Accra.
There are fears that the number of dead could rise as the search of the site continues.
Survivor Yaw Aforve said he was sleeping in his car at the petrol station when he heard the fire
Bus conductor Yaw Aforve was sleeping in his vehicle which was parked at the petrol station when the fire started.
He said he jumped into the floodwaters and when he came up for air, the fire burnt his face.
“I was swept away by the water to the other side [of the road],” he added. “I saw so many people screaming and shouting.”
The flooding helped cause the fire, the Ghana fire service said.
The waters “caused the diesel and petrol to flow away from the gas station, and fire from a nearby house led to the explosion”, spokesman Billy Anaglate said, the Associated Press news agency reports.
Blood was seen on the road under the tuck which was carrying away the dead bodies
President John Mahama has visited the burnt-out petrol station and appealed for calm as the authorities try to cope with the aftermath of the fire and the flooding.
He praised the rescue workers for the lives they had saved but said he was lost for words to express his feelings for those who had died.
One of those who died in the blaze was a child
There are chaotic scenes with cars being carried away by the water and many roads blocked off.
Hundreds have been trapped in their offices and some have been forced to spend the night in their cars as traffic came to a standstill.
Parts of Accra have been left without power as electricity sub-stations have been damaged in the flooding, which is making the ongoing energy shortages even worse.
Cars have been washed away and roads have been blocked by the flooding
Many homes have been inundated and people have been wandering around in their nightclothes after being forced to leave their beds.
One man told a local radio station that he had put his children on top of a wardrobe to save them from the water coming into his house.
President Mahama said that “people building in waterways [and] littering the drains” had contributed to the flooding in the city.
