Fire has gutted parts of the Mankessim Market in the Mfantseman Municipality of Central Region for the third time.
The latest incident happened on Sunday around 10:20 pm when owners of the shops were at their various homes.
Over 15 shops were burnt down into ashes whilst many properties have been destroyed.
Most of the shops that were burnt down were made of woods. An eyewitness who spoke to Kasapa News said, the owners of the shops cook and do their house chores before returning to their homes every day.
This is the third time fire has gutted Mankessim Market within the year 2021.
The eyewitness, Kofi Essandoh said, the fire started in a wooden structured shop which made it difficult for them to quench it.
According to the eyewitness, they heard sounds and later saw smoke coming out from the shop which spread to over 15 other shops.
Some of the shops that were burnt down were drinking bars, Agro-Chemical shops, Provision shops and book shops.
Mr David Aburam, one of the owners of the burnt shops said he was at Gomoa Eshiam when he had a distress call that, his shop and other belongings of his had been burnt down.
According to him, the victims couldn’t take anything from the shop. All their belongings were totally burnt down and nothing could be retrieved.
The eyewitness said it took the Ghana Fire Service about five hours to get to the scene, but before that, the residents had already attempted to help quench the fire.
The District Coordinating Officer, Luis Buckman, a fire officer, on behalf of the Mfantseman Fire Commander also said they found it difficult to enter the market to quench the fire due to the overcrowding and the improper planning and arrangement of the shops.
According to the Fire Commander, all the structures in the Mankessim shops are old and outmoded and needs to be renovated.
The Fire Commander also appealed to the general public especially the market women at Mankessim to arrange the settlement of their shops well for them to get access to the market whenever there is a fire outbreak.
He mentioned that the cause of the fire outbreak was not an electrical fault but was caused by someone who carelessly left the fire on after cooking.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/Yaw Boagyan
