Executive Secretary of the Bureau of Public Service, Nana Yaw Akwada, mentioned that Ghanaians as individuals and a society as a whole, must commit to ending this phenomenon of annual ritual of market fires in the country.

He further stated that even if these fires cannot be terminated, the people must at least try to reduce its occurrence significantly. Mr. Akwada explained that the markets in Ghana are not built markets but rather formed markets; they are markets where one person settles and starts doing business, and its subsequently joined by another until the numbers become huge.

“The city authorities instead of moving in to design these spaces or build them, they also allow these markets to grow in the manner that it is formed and it becomes a headache for all of us. So, for starters I think that we must build our markets and these are not new solutions, these are things that we have been talking about year on year when there are market fires.”
Nana Yaw Akwada

Mr. Akwada also mentioned that city authorities must commit themselves along with the Ghana National Fire Service to adequately educate traders on fire safety. He stated that if the markets can be shut down for clean up exercises, they should be able to shut down the markets for fire education as well.

According to Mr. Akwada, he was told that when the fire service goes to the market to educate the traders, they normally go with huge PA systems and speakers to play good music, and the market women also leave their businesses to go and dance to the music being played by the fire service. He added that, the market women go back to their businesses immediately the music ends and the education aspect begins.

kantamanto fires — Shops bursting out with flames

“We should be able to provide certificates for market men and market women, I mean traders for participating in fire training. Also, the ECG itself must have a team of auditors constantly on the neck of these emergent or evolving markets, because we all know that nine out of ten times most markets fires are caused by electrical wiring.”
Nana Yaw Akwada

He further stated that, the political authorities in the country are shameless and some of them take advantage of these fires to make fanciful promises and statements to the traders. He suggested that these political authorities should be held to task to ensure that the right thing is done.

Further Investigations To Be Conducted on the Fire Outbreak

The Ghana National Fire Service has disclosed that, further investigation is expected to be carried out at the scene of the fire outbreak that happened early this morning at one of the capital’s busiest business center, Kantamanto.

A representative of the Ghana National Fire Service, stated that, rumors on their late arrival to the scene was false and according to him, he does not think that they were called upon by anyone. He mentioned that it took the fire personnel six minutes to get to the scene when they received an actual call.

The Interior Minister has also announced that, psychological services will be provided to victims whose goods and capital were vanquished by the fire. He also stated that he was going to review the reports that were submitted by the emergency response team, thus the fire service and the security agencies.