The developer of the Saglemi Affordable Housing Project, Quarm LMI Consortium, has reassured the public that the recent fire outbreak at the project site did not affect any housing units or critical documents.
The fire, which broke out on December 25, 2024, was caused by labourers attempting to clear weeds on the site, which led to a fire that spread to external warehouses containing expired building equipment.
Kofi Adaboh Ofori Amanfo, Managing Director of the consortium, clarified the situation during a site tour with the Minister of Works and Housing, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, on December 26, 2024.
“So, I think yesterday around 1 o’clock, we had our labourers working on the campsite as you saw it when you came here. So, as we came here in November, we started trying to clear the campsite to prepare for actual development. Some labourers set some little fire just to clear the weeds they had gathered,” Amanfo explained.
“But they couldn’t control it, and they had to move into one of our external warehouses that went up. The fire from the Sege fire station came to help us quench it. So it’s really not the houses; it was the storage area at our campsite. The houses remain untouched, and we have not even started working in there. So, there’s nothing happening here,” he added.
Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah also weighed in on the situation, encouraging the consortium to accelerate the project and adhere to the agreed-upon timelines.
“In accordance with the various instruments, like the building code, like the site layout itself, do your best to comply. Also, you’ve given us timelines by which you expect to complete this project, so stick to those. We’ll wait for the fire department to give us an update of what may have been destroyed in the old shed that got destroyed in that incident,” Nkrumah said.
He expressed relief over the confirmation that no housing units were damaged, adding, “I’m happy to see that contrary to the story that the housing project has been burnt, it’s still here intact. It was the old shed with the old materials in there, and that gives us some comfort. So carry on with your work.”
