Two brothers have burnt down their father’s house in an attempt to cast away what they perceived to be an evil spirit from the house.
This sad incident is said to have happened at Light Industrial Area of Asante Bekwai in the Bekwai Municipality of the Ashanti region.
The inferno that gutted the house started around 3 PM Thursday evening at a time that the two boys were left alone in the house; their father, a mechanic, had traveled out of the town while their mother was away at her shop a distance away from the house.
They reportedly put some P.O.P ceiling fibre in a coal pot, poured petrol on it and lighted a match before they would start praying; the flame from the match immediately sparked a blaze, catching the electrical wiring of the building within seconds; other combustible materials stored in the house, including car engines, a motorcycle and petroleum based liquids facilitated the raging fire.
Eyewitnesses say they mistook the smoke that billowed from the roof of the building for a burning vehicle tire by scavengers, since it is a daily routine at that part of the industrial area, popularly known as “Magazine”.
Efforts by personnel from the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) who arrived at the scene moments after a distress call was placed to them could not salvage anything from the house; every single thing has been reduced to ashes.
What is left of the hitherto imposing edifice is a devastated, smoke-wrecked concrete skeleton; a black Toyota minivan that was parked on the compound of the house was pushed to safety by the rescue party.
Mother of the boys who shed uncontrollable tears said their lifetime investment has gone down the drain; she expressed shock over what might have led his sons to take that action.
The fire fighters declined any comment on the incident.
