More than a dozen of container shops have been burnt down when fire gutted Datus near Kasoa new market in the Awutu Senya East Municipality of the Central Region. The shops were mainly for traders who were into bakery, fashion, provisions, electricals, decoration as well as salons and a carpentry shop. Eyewitnesses told journalists that the Kasoa fire station was called in after the smoke was detected from one of the shops, minutes after it caught fire but were told there was no water. They alleged that neighbours around tried to mobilise water to quench it but could not stop the ravaging fire thereby, spreading to other shops. Another eyewitness said they drove to the Kasoa fire station and was told the fire tender was not in good condition and that a call had been placed to the Buduburam fire station for support. 'If there was a functioning fire tender, I'm not sure it would have spread to so many shops as it has. We plead with the government to provide the fire officers with equipment to be able to w ork effectively because Kasoa is big.' Some of the victims appealed to the Government to come to their aid because they had lost huge sums of investments. In an interview with ADO1 Charles Nyamekye, in charge of Operations at the Buduburam fire station, he said, 'we received the call at around 1306hours, under 1minute we left the station, and we got here around 1315hours.' According to him, the call came in late because the flame was very high upon arrival and the best alternative was to protect it from spreading to other containers and an additional fire tender was called in for support. He said the cause was yet to be established and that investigation would be conducted to ascertain the true cause of the fire. Source: Ghana News Agency