Burnt container shops at the market
Officials of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) and the Member of Parliament (MP) for Klottey Korle, Dr Zanetor Rawlings, yesterday visited the Odawna Market, at the Kwame Nkrumah Interchange to commiserate with victims whose goods were destroyed in Wednesday’s fire outbreak at the market.
More than 80 shops were totally destroyed but without any casuality reported.
The cause of the fire which started at about 8:00 pm is not yet known officially.
A total of four fire engines battled the ravaging inferno and brought it under control in less than 45 minutes.
Assorted goods running into millions of cedis were destroyed in the fire which is the second fire outbreak at the Odawna market since 2013.
The MP called for calm amongst the victims as efforts are made to resolve the matter.
She also assured the victims that they would be engaged and called on them to work with the authorities to a find quick solution to their problems.
Earlier on Wednesday, when reporters arrived at the scene few minutes after the fire started, traders whose wares were been consumed by the fire were seen wailing and calling for help to salvage their goods.
The incident attracted lots of onlookers to the extent that out of curiosity some pedestrians and passengers looked on helplessly as the fire raged on.
A trader, Ali Musah attributed the accident to an electrical spark, saying after the fire started, he called the Fire service while his colleagues tried in vain to quench the flames.
According to him, although it took a while for the service to pick up, he was able to get in touch with them and they arrived to help douse the fire.
He however claimed that the security at the market was not cooperative enough which he said was the reason they could not quench the fire immediately before the Fire Service arrived.
While the fire raged, a few young boys took advantage of the confusion to loot a few things under the pretext of salvaging some items, but were quickly warded off when the fire fighters arrived.
By Norman Cooper and David Takyi
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