‘Dome Market Fire Was Intentional’ – Ga East MCE Alleges

Following the Wednesday evening fire that ravaged parts of the Dome Central Market in Accra, the Municipal Chief Executive for Ga East, Janet Mensah, has said she suspects foul play from some traders who were unhappy with a decision to prevent them from selling on pavements.

The fire is the fourth at the Dome Central Market, and the second in less than two months.

“This is the fourth time the market is in this situation and it is intentional. Information we have gathered is that, someone deliberately started the fire,” the MCE told Citi News.

She added that “we are collaborating, and I have made a formal complaint to the police. We are on course. We will get to the bottom of this.”

A day after the fire, traders were counting their losses running into thousands of thousands of cedis.

“My goods are worth over GHc 20,000 cedis. I buy things from Togo. I have lost about GHc 1,200. We took loans to establish our businesses,” some traders lamented to Citi News.

The fire, which started around 7: 40 pm, gutted 15 metal container shops, and destroyed other properties, though no casualties were recorded, according to the Fire Service.

Fire Service personnel arrived at the scene to douse a large chunk of the inferno, and it eventually took two fire tenders to bring the situation under control.

The Greater Accra Regional Commander of the Fire Service, DCFO Ebenezer Simpson, told Citi News his outfit would need time to establish the cause of the fire.

“Unless we finish extinguishing the fire thoroughly, we don’t want to rush in arriving at the cause of the fire. We need to do some overhauling, check out what goes on, the activities carried out at the places that have been severely charred, and we have to interrogate those who use that container and other things for us to arrive at what caused the fire.”

Source: Citifmonline