A night fire that broke out at Tatale in the Northern region gutted about five yam barns destroying more than half a million tubers.
Another set of tubers still unevaluated, with an estimated cost of about GH¢7,800 were partially burnt by the fire which cause is still unknown.
Farmers had brought the tubers home and stored in the impoverished structures to prevent it from suffering this fate due to increased activities by arsonists, hunters in particular.
The fire started dawn while residents attended New Year Church service.
Before the spreading blaze was identified, hundreds of the tubers had already turned ashes but the locals battled and defeated it with at least a hundred buckets of water.
Many also stood guard securing their homes to prevent the fire from spreading. The fire was confined and no building was torched.
The Ghana Fire Service do not have an installation in that district and the nearest is in far away Yendi, also ill-equipped.
Farmers affected by the fire incident are pleading district assembly authorities for assistance. Some of the tubers were to be preserved for planting next season.
The local coordinator of the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) was not available for comments but an officer of the Organization told Starr News a new management would resume operation next week.
He said affected farmers would be told to make official complaint about the incident to the district office next week.
The incident came a day after another fire triggered by bush burning at auto parts warehouse at Gumani in the regional capital ruined at least 45 tricycles and ravaged dozens spare parts.
Fire incident is common in the region during harmmatan period. Last year, two women were killed and a third severally burnt by bushfire while they were winnowing and bagging rice at a farmland in Bokub, a small village near Saboba.
Source: Ghana/StarrFMonline.com/103.5FM/Eliasu Tanko
