Nurse, 3 children trapped in fire

The location is close to the To Be Hotel, near the Kumasi High School in the Asokwa Municipality in Kumasi and the incident occurred in the early hours of last Saturday, leaving residents in shock.

The victims include a 33-year-old nurse, Linda Kusi, who until her untimely death, worked at the laboratory of the Kumasi South Hospital, popularly known in Kumasi as Agogo Hospital.

One of the children has been identified as Ivan Blay (14), but the names of the other two were only given as Sister (10), and Doctor (4), whose bodies have all been deposited at the mortuary of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi.

Three other occupants of the house were rescued and are currently receiving treatment at the Kumasi South Hospital.

Husband

The husband, Aaron Badu, who works at the Bibiani Gold Mines at Bibiani, was out of town when the tragedy struck and was left dumbfounded when he received the information of the demise of his wife and their children.

The Daily Graphic also gathered that as soon as the incident happened, leadership of his church (name withheld), visited his workplace at Bibiani, and he is currently at the worship centre at Santaasi near Kumasi, where he is being assisted in dealing with the unfortunate situation.

Eyewitness

Narrating the incident to the Daily Graphic news team when it visited the scene of the incident, a brother-in-law of Miss Kusi, Kwabena Mensah, popularly known at Gyinyaase as 'Deuteronomy’, said the families were yet to recover from their nightmare.

He said at exactly 4 a.m. last Saturday, his wife, who sells kenkey in the neighbourhood, had woken up as usual, around 3 a.m. to carry out her cooking, and saw flames from the roof of the victims' self-contained apartment, and came and woke him up.

Immediately, he rushed to the scene, but alone at the time, he was helpless and called on one Baba, a labourer at the Kumasi High School, who lives next to their house, to help him to rescue the victims.

"When I stood by the windows of their bedroom, I heard the yell of the victims.

“We have been trapped by fire.

Please come and rescue us", he shook his head as he narrated his ordeal to this reporter.

Gas explosion

Mr Mensah, who is also a mason, said he rushed into his room, came out with some brick-breaking tools and started breaking into the walls to create an escape route for the victims before some other neighbours rushed to the scene to assist.

" At that time, I kept interacting with the victims, telling them to remain calm as we forcibly broke into the building.

They recognised my voice and they kept mentioning my name, Detro, Detro, we are dying," he sadly told this reporter.

"I lost hope when a gas cylinder in the room burst.

Afterwards, I didn't hear any voice from the room anymore", he soberly added.

He said together with some neighbours, they finally broke into the building but could not get to the victims until personnel of the Ghana National Fire Service came and doused the inferno, which lasted about an hour.According to Mr Mensah, but for the intervention of the fire personnel, the fire would have extended to the school block.

Heart-wrenching image

When a police team from the KNUST Police Station arrived to pick up the lifeless bodies, Linda was found with her arms around the children under running water from the shower in her bathroom.

That heart-wrenching image worsened the already sad mood among residents of the Gyinyaase community, who thronged to the scene to commiserate with the bereaved family.