WHEN FIRE fighters from Kumasi responded to a report of a fire outbreak at the Amansie village of Asanso-Patasi, off the Obuasi-Kumasi road a week ago, they thought a fire was all they were going to deal with.
It was only upon arrival at the fire scene that they found a dead body inside the six-bedroom house.
The body of Yaa Pomaa, 55, had been placed in one of the rooms, ready to be laid in state when the raging fire engulfed the house, burning the corpse to a crisp, in what the late Fela Anikulapo Kuti, the Nigerian Afro musician would described as �double wahala for dead body�.
Head of the family, Opanin Kwaku Mensah, said an error in judgment by an unknown person, who is suspected to have taken into the room a gallon of petrol bought to power a generator, might have caused the fire that also destroyed personal effects and other property in the house.
Opanin Gyamfi disclosed that firemen responded late to the distress call because they had to come from Kumasi instead of Bekwai since there was no fire tender in the Bekwai municipality.
By the time the officers reached the community about 10pm, two hours after the outbreak, the entire house was fully engulfed in flames, he added.
�The ferocious fire burnt for quite a while before the officials managed to put out the blaze,� the family head said, and appealed to government to resource the Bekwai Municipal fire station.
For now, it is unclear if the blaze was caused by the said petrol, as investigation is commenced to ascertain the actual cause of the fire.
The body of the 55-year-old woman has since been buried after the incident. The incident became an agonising blow for the Patasi family, which lost the middle-aged woman after a short illness quite recently.
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