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Claim: A Facebook user, Yaw Whyte, posted a video showing fire trucks trapped under a collapsed storey building, implying the incident likely occurred in Ghana.
Verdict: Misleading! DUBAWA’s investigation revealed that the incident took place at a fire station in Sagaing, Myanmar, following a devastating earthquake between March 28 and March 29, 2025, which claimed approximately 2,700 lives.
Full Text
Yaw Whyte, a Facebook user with over 30,000 followers, shared a video on April 11, 2025, that depicted fire trucks crushed beneath a collapsed building.
The video captioned “Kasongo Building,” accompanied by his voiceover bashing construction standards, led many viewers to assume the event happened in Ghana.
Since its posting on April 4, 2025, at 5:26 PM, the video has gone viral, accumulating over 4.4 million views, 1.6k shares, 860 comments, and 18,000 likes, as evidenced by the post’s engagement metrics.
The video’s lack of a specified location and Yaw Whyte’s suggestive narration misled numerous Ghanaians into believing their country was the site of the collapse.
This sparked significant concern and criticism in the comments section:
- Leona Bediako Adu: “Ei Yaa Ghana ebeyeyie? Who checks the structural integrity of buildings? Before I enter any building, I have to check and pray. Ei”
- Houston Emmanuel: “Which part of Ghana did it happen in? This is a testament to shoddy construction work, with stupid people who call themselves artisans. I hope nobody died.”
- Freda McPrayzah Lutterodt: “I am always looking at pillars of new construction in Ghana, and indeed, I wonder which architects supervise the buildings in Ghana. Seriously.”
- Ing Samuel Adjabeng: “The guy didn’t say Ghana Fire Service oo. He wasn’t even specific as to the country this happened. Anyway, it didn’t happen in Ghana tho. It happened in a country in Asia.”
- Amponsah Kwesi Thomas: “Infact should call state emergency n goes our knees pray to God Almighty ask forgiveness for what we did to Dr Kwame Nkrumah…”
- Sterling Kwaku A Sey: “This was built under NPP regime bravo, Akufo-Addo.”
While some users, like Ing Samuel Adjabeng, correctly noted the ambiguity and suggested an Asian location, others expressed fear about Ghanaian building safety or turned it into a political critique.
The viral spread and emotional reactions prompted DUBAWA to investigate, given the potential for misinformation to cause panic and damage trust in Ghana’s construction and fire service sectors.
Verification
DUBAWA’s investigation utilised credible sources to determine the true location and context of the incident via Google’s Reverse Image tool:
- BBC Report: On April 1, 2025, the BBC published an article titled “Myanmar earthquake: Death toll rises as search for survivors continues.” It reported a 7.8 magnitude earthquake striking Myanmar on March 28, 2025, causing widespread destruction, including the collapse of a fire station in Sagaing.
The photos accompanying the article show fire trucks trapped under debris. This scene is identical to Yaw Whyte’s video, confirming that the event occurred in Myanmar, not Ghana.
- The Guardian Report: Published on April 1, 2025, The Guardian’s article, “Myanmar earthquake death toll rises as victims buried in unmarked graves”, detailed the same incident.
It noted the collapse of the Sagaing fire station, among other damages, with a death toll of approximately 2,700, and included images matching Whyte’s video, further disproving the Ghana claim.
- Manisala Social/Nursing Association Facebook Post: On April 6, 2025, at 10:12 am, the Manisala Social/Nursing Association, based in Mandalay City, Myanmar, posted photos on its official Facebook page. These images, taken after the group donated aid to the Sagaing fire department post-earthquake, show the collapsed fire station with trapped fire trucks and a signboard identifying the location—details omitted from Whyte’s video.
The photos also depict fire personnel using ladders to rescue trapped individuals, providing additional context absent in the misleading post.
- CNN’s Will Ripley Report: On March 30, 2025, CNN journalist Will Ripley reported from Sagaing, Myanmar, sharing footage on Instagram.
The video captures the same fire station with fire trucks flattened under the collapsed structure, consistent with the other sources. It also includes interviews with local officials, solidifying the Myanmar setting.
- Truck number plates: The Manisala Social/Nursing Association’s Facebook post on April 6, 2025, included one image of a fire truck with the number plate “45-2208. ” This plate differs from Ghana’s standard format (typically starting with a regional code like “GR” followed by numbers and a year, e.g., “GR 1234-21”) and indicates a non-Ghanaian origin.
A fire truck with the number plate “45-2208” at the collapsed Sagaing fire station, as shown in a photo from the Manisala Social/Nursing Association’s Facebook post on April 6, 2025, differs from Ghana’s standard plate format
A screenshot from Whyte’s video shows the collapsed building and fire trucks. Still, it lacks location-specific markers like the Sagaing signboard or rescue operations, which were deliberately excluded to support his misleading narrative.
The evidence DUBAWA gathered from these reputable sources confirms that the incident occurred in Sagaing, Myanmar, following the March 28-29, 2025, earthquake, not in Ghana.
Conclusion
The claim that the viral video of fire trucks under a collapsed storey building depicts an incident in Ghana is false.
