A massive overnight fire has ravaged critical sections of the National Public Health and Reference Laboratory (NHPRL) at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, destroying documents, equipment, and irreplaceable archives, some of which date back to the pre-independence era.
According to eyewitness accounts, the blaze ignited around midnight on Tuesday, June 17, and raged through the night before it was finally extinguished by firefighters at approximately 5:00 a.m. on Wednesday morning.
The inferno consumed several administrative departments including the accounts office, administrative office, stores, and most notably, the archive department.
Eyewitnesses described the destruction as total, with critical records and assets reduced to ashes.
“Everything was burnt to ashes,” a witness told Myjoyonline, lamenting the scale of the loss. “Important documents and equipment running into millions of cedis are gone, including archival materials that date back before Ghana’s independence.”
Emergency responders, including fire service personnel, battled the blaze for several hours.
While there were no reported injuries or fatalities, the extent of property loss is yet to be fully assessed.
Hospital authorities and fire officials have begun investigations into the possible cause of the fire, although no official explanation has been given at the time of reporting.
The National Public Health and Reference Laboratory serves as a critical facility for disease surveillance, diagnostics, and public health monitoring across Ghana.
Its proximity to the Diabetes Centre within the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital raises additional concerns about potential risks to adjoining facilities, though the fire did not appear to spread beyond the NHPRL compound.
