Fire sweeps through a room in Job 600

FIRE swept through one of the rooms in the State House building, popularly called Job 600, on Thursday, destroying electrical appliances and some materials.

The electrical appliances were among materials which were being used for the rehabilitation of the building to serve as offices for Members of Parliament (MPs) and their research assistants.

It took firemen from the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) about 30 minutes to bring the fire, which occurred on the sixth floor of the building at 5:26 p.m., under control.

The Assistant Public Relations Officer of the GNFS, Mr Prince Billy Anaglate, told the Daily Graphic that the incident might have been caused by sparks from a welding machine which was being used at the time of the incident.

He said the GNFS had begun investigations to ascertain the actual cause of the fire.

Work on the rehabilitation of Job 600, at a cost of $40 million, is expected to be completed in August 2012 but, according to some of the workers on the project, the fire incident was likely to affect the completion date.

The Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) is providing a loan of $25 million to support grants from China and Belgium.

The Job 600 building, situated behind Parliament House, was constructed during the administration of Ghana’s first President, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, to accommodate participants attending the OAU (now African Union) Conference which took place in Accra in 1965.

SOURCE: Della Russel Ocloo, Daily Graphic,  May 11, 2012