The death toll from the deadly Accra floods and a devastating fire at a Goil filling station at Kwame Nkrumah Circle Wednesday has hit 200.
The Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) said its preliminary investigations into the disastrous explosion at the GOIL fuel station indicates that valves that were not properly tightened caused the fuel to gush out.
This allowed the fuel to float on the surface of the flood water, and then came into contact with fire in a distance of about 100 meters from the station.
The heavy downpour in the capital rendered several places flooded and also led to power outages in several communities. Reports suggest that the fire service personnel struggled to fight the inferno last night.
The Deputy Public Relations Officer for the GNFS, Billy Anaglatey told TV3 at the scene of the fire.
He said, “What actually might have initiated this whole fire situation at the Goil Filling Station is that, when it was raining, the people decided to take shelter there but the rain persisted. And as it was raining, the running water started rising and it was then that some of them detected the surface of the water was oily, but little did they know that it could result into fire.
“Our investigations continued and we realized that some of the valves were not properly closed so the running water was entering into the underground tank and because of density factor, it went under the fuel and pushed the fuel up. So the fuel was coming from the underground tank and the whole area was having the fuel on the surface of the running water. It is not all the fuel that comes out that was mixable with water; those that were not mixable with water, the compounds were just resting on the surface but it was a running water so it was able to move from the Goil Filling Station to over 100 meters, where it met a naked fire and traced it back to the filling station then the explosion happened”.
Meanwhile, in many parts of the city, dead bodies are being pulled out of drains, commercial and private vehicles swept away by floods, street corners, ramshackle shops, and homes.
The 37 Military Hospital is overwhelmed by dead bodies conveyed there in Kia Trucks.
Authorities at the Police and 37 military Hospital say they can no longer receive any more bodies.
