Fire Outbreak At Parliament, Job 600 Archives Room Affected

Fire has gutted an archives room on the first floor of the 12-storey Job 600 building which serves as offices for Members of Parliament in Ghana’s Legislature.

The fire started early Tuesday, August 27, 2024.

The blaze caused damage to the storeroom, though the exact cause of the fire has yet to be determined.

Investigations are ongoing to identify the source and extent of the damage. Thick smoke could be seen coming out from some offices with personnel of the Ghana National Fire Service trying to douse the fire.

Staff and workers in the building were swiftly evacuated to designated assembly points as emergency services worked to extinguish the fire and investigate its cause.

The Greater Accra Regional Commander of the Ghana Fire Service, ACFO 1 Roberta Aggrey Ghanson, told Citi News that her team is working to contain the fire to prevent it from spreading to other rooms.

She also confirmed that no casualties have been recorded so far, and the situation is under control.

“Around 9:45 am we received a distress call and in less than 5 minutes our appliance was here. What we are seeing now is a fire that has affected one of the rooms. It is like a store room because we have some storage items there. So, our aim now is to get the fire confined. After the fire is confined, then we know how to extinguish it. But the most important thing for us now is to confine the fire so that it doesn’t travel to other unaffected rooms.

“If we knew what caused the fire then it would be after our firefighting. But at the moment, the situation is very calm and everybody should put their heart at rest,” she stated.

Job 600, commissioned by President Akufo-Addo in November 2020, is an annex to the Parliament Chamber.

The building, constructed under the Parliament House Physical Infrastructure Enhancement Project, is part of broader efforts to comprehensively address the longstanding infrastructure challenges faced by Parliament.

The incident which caused fear and panic among the staff of the legislature has forced the Government Assurances Committee of the House to suspend its public hearing to 3:00 pm.

Chairman of the Committee and Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa told Journalists in Parliament at the fire scene.

Parliament is currently on break but various committees of the House hold regualr sittings to conisider referrals before them.