Some seven shops belonging to 17 traders at the Sekondi Market in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis of the Western Region, have been razed by a fire that started on Tuesday night.
The fire, which according to eyewitnesses started at about 3:00am, took firefighters over an hour to quench it.
Properties worth over Gh50,000 were demolished. Items destroyed include six Corn Mill machines, several bags of imported dried pepper, bags of maize, colander among others. The cause of the fire is not yet known.
A security guard at the market who noticed when the fire started, recounted that, “at about 3:00am, there were calls of a fire outbreak. We rushed there, and saw that it is true. One of us went to inform the police and they also notified the fire service. It took the fire service from 3:00am to about 5:00am before they could put the fire off.”
Among the heavily affected portions of the market, is the corn milling division. Fire fighters are investigating the the cause of the fire, which is not the first to have occurred in that particular market, just like many other markets across the country.
But some traders suspect the fire might have started from the corn millers’ end.
One of the female supervisors of the market, Anita Mensah, explained that she had cautioned the corn millers of their activities which are done in the night.
“…But they will also say because they mill pepper in large quantities, they have been advised to carry out their activity in the night to prevent the possible spread of powdered pepper and its effects on traders, so you cannot blame them so much.”
Others also suspect the fire might have been triggered by an electrical fault.
“They took the power at some point. So we suspect they did not put out all their electrical gadgets and so when the power came, the fire might have sparked”. One other trader explained.
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By: Obrempong Yaw Ampofo/citifmonline.com/Ghana