Fire tender on mission to rescue truck with 260 bags of shea nuts breaks down few meters from scene
A fire tender with registration number FS 551 was on a mission to rescue a cargo truck with 260 bags of shea nuts when it broke down a few meters away from the accident scene.
The incident, which occurred at Kabampe in the West Gonja Municipality of Savannah Region, left both the cargo truck driver and the fire officers distressed and disappointed watching the truck in flames.
MyJoyOnline arrived at the scene and saw three eyewitnesses, the driver, his driver-mate, and a fire officer who walked from the faulty fire tender to the accident scene all looking helpless.
A visibly worried West Gonja Municipal Deputy Fire Officer, Andrew Kofi Nimot, in an exclusive interview with MyJoyOnline, blamed their encounter on the road on a lack of routine servicing.
He said the vehicle had not been serviced for the past seven years.
“This car has been here (Municipal command) for almost seven years without servicing. And we have been following the authorities to help service this car. Now, here we are with an emergency case, we are standing watching the scene but the vehicle is faulty parked here.”
“It’s a mechanical fault because it was jetting before the warning came and if it happens like that, it means we have to stop. Because if you proceed, anything can happen,” Andrew Kofi Nimo, explained.
He said the vehicle is an electrical machine and thus whenever it shows the signal, the driver must comply with it to save lives and properties.
Onboard the cargo truck was 260 bags of shea nuts from Wa in the Upper West Region and was heading towards Tamale, “but we burst a tire and two other tires also removed so, I had to park well. After that, the rubber we used to cover the shea nuts, caught fire and started burning,” Rashid Abdulai, the driver said.
“We tried our best to put off the fire but failed. We called them (GNFS) early but their car is the one parked there. It’s spoiled,” he said.
MyJoyOnline later caught up with the Savannah Regional Commander of Ghana National Fire Service office, Assistant Chief Fire Officer, Emmanuel Ofori-Adjei on the state of the fire tender.
“When I took over somewhere in January little funds came and I released them to all the districts to service cars. So, I don’t think it will be servicing that has caused it, a vehicle can develop fault at any time,” ACFO, Emmanuel Ofori-Adjei indicated.
He said he had dispatched his Municipal Fire Officer and other officers to the scene for assessment as to why the dashboard was blinking for the way forward.
Source: Ghana News
