A family in Manyoro–Dambisi in the Kassena-Nankana Municipality is counting heavy losses after a fire destroyed their home, burning property worth thousands of Ghana cedis.
The blaze, which witnesses say began around 9 a.m. on Thursday, November 20, 2025, raged for nearly two hours as fire tenders were unable to reach the community due to collapsed bridges.
Manyoro, a farming community surrounded by rivers and seasonal streams, depends on several bridges for access to nearby towns including Navio, Sirigu, and Navrongo. Residents say the bridges have deteriorated for years, leaving only one—the steel bridge linking Manyoro to Sirigu—still barely in use.
That remaining bridge is also in a dangerous state, with cracks, weakened joints, and a severely narrowed passage.
According to Kingsley Kanwi, Assembly Member for the Manyoro Electoral Area, firefighters in Navrongo responded to the distress call but could not cross the broken bridge that links Manyoro and Gumongo. The fire tender was forced to return to Navrongo and use the longer Navio–Paga route, a detour that added more than an hour to the response time.
“We called the fire service on time. They actually responded, but they stopped at the river because of the broken bridge. There was no way they could cross,” Mr. Kanwi said. “It took them close to one and a half hours to reach the scene. By that time, the fire had consumed everything.”
Mrs. Kadi, the victim whose home was destroyed, said the family lost household items, foodstuffs, personal documents, appliances, mattresses, and other valuables. Visibly shaken, she told A1 Radio’s Samuel Adagom that the damage could have been greatly reduced if emergency services had safe access to the community.
“We watched everything burn. We couldn’t save anything because the fire spread very fast. If the fire service had reached here early, at least part of the house could have been saved,” she said.
Community leaders say this incident adds to a long list of emergencies worsened by the inaccessible road network. Residents report cases in recent years where pregnant women, the sick, and accident victims could not reach medical facilities on time—sometimes with fatal consequences.
Mr. Kanwi described the situation as a “ticking time bomb” and urged the Kassena-Nankana Municipal Assembly and the Ministry of Roads and Highways to treat the matter as a humanitarian emergency.
“The danger is not only to residents but also to national services like fire, police, and ambulance. If only one weak steel bridge is holding this community together, then the system has already failed us,” he warned.
Residents fear the situation will worsen as the dry season sets in and bushfires become more common, raising the risk of further loss of life and property unless the bridges are urgently fixed.
Source: a1radioonline.com|101.1Mhz|Samuel Adagom|Bolgatanga
