A 37-year-old pregnant woman and her two sons were burnt to death in a fire that ravaged their home at Ohwim in the Kumasi Metropolis on Monday, 15 August 2022.
The fire, which started around 11:30 pm, trapped Philomena Osei and her two children, 7 and 9, in their rooms, charring them beyond recognition.
A neighbour who witnessed the fire outbreak narrated the incident to the media.
“I heard the woman shouting for help. By the time I stepped out, I realized the entire building had been engulfed by fire. Together with other residents, we called the Fire Service, but before they arrived, the three had been burnt to death,” she said.
Although the Ghana National Fire Service is yet to establish the cause of the fire, some neighbours of the family suspect arson.
“This is not the first time it’s happening. Someone once set the back of the net of one of the rooms ablaze, but it was detected quickly and quenched.
“So this one appears suspicious because how can two rooms catch fire at the same time,” another neighbour told 3news.
Fortunately, the older sibling, who is 14 years old, was able to escape from the house unharmed.
The late woman’s husband, said to be a manager of a rural bank in the Ashanti Region, was not home at the time of the incident.
Meanwhile, the Ghana National Fire Service personnel have commenced investigations into the issue.
This is the third fire incident in the Ashanti Region this month.
A fire incident killed an 18-year-old boy while a middle-aged woman battled for her life in another regional fire incident.
The incidents occurred on Friday and Saturday, August 5 and 6, 2022.
The 18-year-old was reportedly trapped while attempting to save some properties from a burning 10-bedroom plastic recycling manufacturing firm at Kronum in the Suame Municipal.
In the case of the woman, she was reportedly asleep when the fire started in the house at Ahenkro in the Afigya Kwabre South district.
However, she struggled through the blaze but not without sustaining burns on most of her body.