An investigative panel made up of personnel from the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI), the Military, Police, the Fire Service and the Lands Commission, set up to unravel the fire outbreak that engulfed the records department of the Lands Commission, has finally presented its report.
Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mike Hammah, received the report at a ceremony in Accra.
The body was tasked to establish the cause of the fire that occurred on the dawn of Thursday, March 1st.
A number of recommendations were made up by the committee including the creation of a backup system outside the premises of the commission to store documents.
It would be recalled that thousands of land documents and files including archival and colonial records were consumed in an intense fire that swept through the head office of the Lands Commission at Cantonments in Accra.
The fire was said to have started at about 5:15 am, according to an eyewitness who also called the fire service to put out the fire, but on their arrival, the firemen had to battle the ravaging fire with much difficulty because the papers used to store records fuelled the fire which spread rapidly through the building.
The entire area was engulfed in plumes of thick smoke that billowed from the building, while the fire ravaged and consumed furniture, computers and other electronic gadgets.
The Director of Survey and Mapping of the Commission, Mr. Joseph Tetteh Odamitey later told newsmen that the fire devastated the Public and Vested Lands division and that of Survey and Mapping division respectively where important documents are kept.
Mr. Odamity said the Library which stored up-to-date records, the Conference Room, Typing Pool and Research divisions were all burnt.
"...most of the ancient documents which were not captured in soft copy were all destroyed...the fire, did not also spare some computers which have up-to-date information," he said.
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