Fire has destroyed a residential storey building with about 10 bedrooms and three vehicles, including a gas tanker, after a gas filling station caught fire at Asufufu near Sunyani in the Bono Region.

The blaze started around 8 p.m. when a taxi cab ignited while its fuel tank was being filled by an attendant at the gas station. According to eyewitnesses, the flames quickly spread, engulfing the gas tanker and other vehicles at the station.

A swift response from the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) prevented the fire from spreading to nearby areas. It took GNFS personnel approximately three hours to bring the inferno under control.

“Our initial assessment has revealed that the gas tanker was discharging its content while the attendant of the station was at the same time dispensing gas into the taxi cab, which should not be so,” said ACFO Olivia Ayem, the Bono Regional Commander of the GNFS, speaking to journalists.

ACFO Ayem noted that the command would investigate the incident further to confirm whether this procedural error caused the fire.

She emphasised that proper protocol requires the tanker driver and the gas station attendant to consult GNFS officials to supervise the discharging process.

“We were not consulted, we don’t know why, but we could have doused off the fire at its initial state,” she explained.

The incident occurred on Wednesday, 12 June 2024.