Fire guts Timber Market
Some shops and industrial machines were Tuesday destroyed when fire gutted the plastic waste and metal manufacturing unit (Galaway) in the Timber Market in Accra.
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The fire, which started about 5:30a.m., razed down all the wooden shops containing plastic and metal products and industrial machines.
The cause of the fire was not immediately established.
Officials from the Ghana National Fire and Rescue Service arrived at the scene at about 5:45a.m. but the absence of water in the water hydrants delayed them.
According to eye-witness accounts, combustible material such as gas cylinders, plastic and the wooden structures in the market might have aggravated the fire since they heard intermittent explosions.
It took two teams of fire fighters one- and-half hours to bring the fire under control.
When the Daily Graphic got to the scene at about 10:45 a.m., some affected traders were seen gathering their burnt items.
Eyewitness account
An eyewitness, Mr Abubakar Issaka, alias Baba, a scrap dealer in the market, told the Daily Graphic that a trader who used to sleep in the market lit a fire but forgot to put it out.
According to Mr Issaka, unknown to the trader, there was a leaky gas cylinder nearby which caught fire and exploded, affecting most of the wooden and plastic materials in the market.
The fire-fighting teams, according to Mr Issaka, had a tough time having access to the scene of the fire since the passage had been blocked by people who slept in the market, adding that “it was the men sleeping in the market who paved the way for the vehicle to have its way to the scene.”
More commitment needed
The Greater Accra Deputy Director of National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) in-charge of fire, Mr Isaac Mensah, entreated stakeholders to join forces with the government to ensure that measures were put in place to curb the numerous fire outbreaks in the country.
Mr Mensah assured the traders of NADMO’s support and also urged Ghanaians to help prevent fires in the country.
Distraught traders
A manufacturer of plastic products, Mallam Charlie, attributed the cause of the fire to the traders who sleept in the marke.
Mallam Charlie, who lost three shops called on the government to help put an end to the practice, saying such a move would help prevent such fires from recurring .