Sad story of Techiman Market must not be repeated

Scores of people, mostly market women and men, stood in shock as they helplessly watched a wild fire ravage dozens of shops at the Techiman Central Market in the Bono East Region a couple of weeks ago.

Like many fires in the past, the inferno started with just a spark, and within a few minutes, it spread to many areas in the market. From afar, many could see the
thick dark smoke bellowing into the blue sky, while the fire destroyed everything in its path.

Bales of clothes, foodstuffs, drinks, shoes and many other items were not spared by the ravaging fire, as it showed no mercy at any point in time.

When firemen from the Bono East Regional Fire Command arrived on the scene of the fire a few minutes after they had been called, they stood helpless for a while, as they figured out how to reach the blaze. The entire market was choked with structures, leaving no path for such serious emergencies.

While the owners of the structures in flames wailed and cried as they stood aloof, wondering whether what they were seeing was real or a dream, they were also counting their losses because some of them had taken loans from the banks and cooperatives to buy their stock.

As sad as it is, this story has been told over and over by the Daily Graphic, which has covered hundreds of such unfortunate incidents throughout the length and breadth of the country.

It is highly unfortunate, as it is also unacceptable, why markets across the country will be built without proper access to enable fire engines to attend to such emergencies.

It has clearly become obvious that the metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies which oversee the activities of the markets care less about the haphazard way in which people occupy the spaces. All the assemblies seem to care about is the collection of daily tolls from the market women and men, but never see it as a duty to protect them from such incidents. This lackadaisical attitude on the part of the assemblies is most worrying and must be condemned in no uncertain terms.

We believe that much as the owners of stalls and shops within the markets should know better to do the right thing, it is the responsibility of the assemblies to ensure that the right things are done by creating access routes to make it easy for emergency vehicles to manoeuvre in case there is fire.

The sad story of the Techiman Market is not new. Other markets have suffered similar fates and we seem not to learn any lessons from those occurrences. We do not do what is right to either prevent or reduce to the barest minimum the effects of such fires. We are oblivious of the dangers, but never act proactively for reasons, we, as a paper, find most difficult to comprehend.

Against this background, the Daily Graphic would want to prevail on the Ministry of Local Government, under whose jurisdiction these assemblies fall, to push them to action.

These acts of lawlessness that cause the nation a fortune whenever fire guts the markets must cease with immediate effect.

We also prevail on the market women and men to let wisdom prevail by taking their safety and that of their wares seriously by not doing what can easily contribute a spark that will deny them their livelihoods. The fires are one too many and we must all reason to bring such incidents to an end.