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By the morning of the outbreak of the news that the official home of former President J. J. Rawlings in Accra was engulfed in fire at dawn, February 14, 2010, sympathisers and family friends of the late Dr. Akrofi Kumoji had gathered somewhere else in Accra, to commence the one-year anniversary rites of the tragic accidental death of the one-time ace Obstetrician/Gynecologist. He died too, of a �fire accident�. The public was not to know exactly what might have happened in Dr. Kumoji�s case. He smoked tobacco, both as pipe and cigarettes. Students who had the privilege to do electives with him observed it, and I happen to have shared this honour, having come down from Germany then. Fire seems to have consumed a number of premises in the Republic of Ghana lately. A couple of state-owned properties in Accra, and the Central Market in Kumasi should be among the material losses incurred, and painfully! Loss of human lives has not featured �so prominently� among the losses, and one would be grateful to the Almighty for this. The latest in connection with the erstwhile President would be shrouded in speculation, gossip, but also in secrecy for a long time to come. Our communities have so loved gossips that Dr. Nkrumah, in his days, and wisdom, made at some period in the early 60s, �rumor-mongering� an offence, and prosecutable. In a �typical� dawn-broadcast at the time, the President would pronounce, warning at the same time by yelling, �They say, they say�, �akee, akee�, because most people who listened to his broadcasts were, other than English speaking, �Ga�, and �Twi-speaking.� These merged into �secret jokes.� Among the populace today, I could assure you that with the present happenings, not only Accra, but the whole nation is agog with what is to be expected from the speculations, as to exactly what happened. Already, the news that some electricians had been summoned three months ago to the same house, reportedly �under suspicion of� danger of electrical fire, sells like hot cake! This may remain a suspicion ad infinitum, and nobody should press for more details, because they may never be forthcoming. Not too much is made available to the media world-wide, in such cases. (State-Secrecy and security are paramount and supreme!). A lot has been written about fires in Medieval England, and Agatha Christie, (1896-1976), continuing with a number of her 70 detective novels, deals with the mysteries of a couple of them. The structure of urbanization before, during, and the post-industrial revolution, and the way the working class lived (had to live), rendered living in houses per se, susceptible to outbreaks of fire, and the spread of it. Fire-fighting stayed for several centuries a lucrative but frustrating business for fire-fighters, and the communities they served, alike. In the mid-seventies, as an adjunct to my training as a �neuro-traumatologist� the care of casualties with burn-injuries, but also with injuries to the nervous system, it was mandatory to accompany the �fire-service� for a period of six months. There was not much routine work to do, except if they were called into action, you would have to accompany them to the scene. Whilst you arrived, you were guarded to stand with the group engaged in quenching the fire, but you were positioned in such a way that unless a true catastrophe occurred, you scarcely would sustain burns. You enjoyed a safe assignment in a risky environment. But, it was so important that if during your tenure, you did not encounter �enough engagements� to fill your protocol, you were given the chance at your convenience, to join them again to complete the prescribed period. Injuries, typically occurred through falls, with head, and spinal injuries (damage to the skull, and vertebral column, together with the spinal cord, did happen). You were well-fed each day when the duty-hours were over, and having once been part of it, you could always drive to them, come Christmas, and collect �a parcel.� It was a tradition, which not even the NAZIs, with the rigid laws, saw good reason to abrogate. The streets in Germany were so meticulously and �adequately� laid, such that the fire-service convoy moved freely from their center to the scene of the �reported trouble.� Action to quench the fire was usually initiated well ahead, such that, damage to property was scant, and casualty was equally not of immense magnitude. Exception was the outbreak of fire at the International Airport in Dusseldorf in the mid-nineties, where material destruction was substantial, and the loss of life was worrying. The whole world heard about it, and the Airport in Dussedorf had to get such a renovation undertaken, which came close to the re-building of the entire airport. Well, I am not sure, whether what you are about to read is �good news� or not. Since I have started to say it, let me go right ahead and complete it. If you possess GH�1,000, you could have a street named after you right away. Better still, if you had as many as ten times the GH�1,000, you could have a street named after you, which is ten times as long as �a normal street�. Of course, you won�t have to come to me to enlighten you on what a normal street may be. I understand it obtains in Accra and Oseikrom. I forgot to ask the bidder whether the street should start from where the �buyer�s� house may be located. So, the norms seem to have changed since Kwame Nkrumah had an avenue named after him, and a circle too, all in Accra. He would have had an awful time building a university out of his pocket, �to have it named after him�. Well, my opinion is, the norms must have changed. A really boisterous colleague from a North African country, who told me how famous his family should be, and if I traveled to his country I would discover a street named after his dad, was emphatic in saying it. As it turned out, I had to travel to his country not quite two years later (for a mandatory conference), and I discovered that it was indeed true that such a street bearing his family�s name existed. His compatriot, whose family resided on the same street, explained to me how it worked out in their country. It took almost three decades for Ghana to adopt the same method. So, if you have a deep pocket, you could have a street named after you, so it seems. I am not sure whether if you wanted several streets bearing your name, in different cities, it would work out too. You find Bismarck Str. or Bismarck Square, virtually in every German city. Bismarck, nicknamed �The Iron Chancellor,� lived almost two hundred years ago. His impact on Germany, and German way/ways of life, virtually immortalized him. He initiated, for example, the �Social Security� system for Germany. All the objects named after him came after his death! In some countries, the streets are laid first, named, with canalization, and street-lighting before the citizens may acquire their plots to build. The streets are maintained in New York the same way as they are in Jeddah, or Hong Kong. They are asphalted, and they don�t retain any pot-holes. If anybody from among your household, or a less- privileged neighbor�s son should fall ill middle of the night, the ambulance-team will find their way, directed by the map, or the GPS, and effectively do something. In times of a disaster of whatever magnitude (e.g. an earth quake), or fire-outbreak, movement for help poses no such big problem. Our surveyors and engineers may have little to amuse men inclined my way. They and the town-planners, followed by the engineers, pervasively would want to persuade you that it is the chiefs who in our country �dispose of land�, and that should explain why canalization and streets cannot be built, let alone get networked to look like in Dubai. This is in addition to the tragedy that many may not have the gusto, even to discuss on academic basis, this issue. Wow! Not only the town-planners, and engineers and architects, but doctors too see things differently, what pertains in Ghana, even if they have had exposure elsewhere in addition. I had my feel recently, when someone in the passenger�s seat �called my attention� to a scenario to the right-hand-side of both of us, and said to me, �here, right here! What are you doing about this, smart guy!?� �Haven�t you told me a million times before�, she continued the pummeling, �how all the diseases that kill the old, but also the young, come from here? Just watch!� She was damn right. To the right of where we were stuck in the �stop-and-go� traffic, was a head of garbage, years old, where the community drives past on a daily basis. Nearby was the structure, illegal of course, from which a lady sold �waakye.� She needs to feed five heads. Doctors like Rudolf Virchow (1821 � 1902), and Max von Pettenkoffer (1818 � 1901), who fought and changed so much for Germany, seem to be missing in Ghana!