The Mayor of Accra, Hon. Elizabeth K.T. Sackey has appealed to traders to always take fire precautionary measures more seriously to prevent the occurrences of fire outbreaks in markets.
The Mayor said this when she visited the Makola Mall scene to ascertain the extent of damage the fire had caused to the over 200 shops and makeshift structures.
The fire which started at around 11:00 pm on Friday, October 20, 2023, was brought under control by officers of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) who have also commenced an investigation into the cause of the fire.
Items destroyed include wigs, perfumes, cosmetics, and pieces of jewelry among other items running into thousands of Ghana cedis. Fortunately, there were no casualties.
The Mayor in a poignant message to traders emphasized the critical importance of fire safety and appealed to them to adhere to fire safety regulations.
“As traders you must obey all the fire safety tips given by the Ghana National Fire Service to prevent the occurrence of these fire outbreaks in our markets,” she said.
Briefing the media on the situation, the Deputy Director, Operations of GNFS, Chief Fire Officer, Kofi Forson explained that fire personnel had a distress call around 11:24 pm on Friday and because there was a fire station located around the Mall, in less than two minutes fire personnel got to the scene to bring the situation under control.
He said because the fire was intense they called for reinforcement with more firefighting equipment.
“In all, nine fire fighting appliances were used with 70 fire personnel trying to bring the fire under control; they forced open the padlocks locking the main entrance to the Mall, using special equipment, and got access to the spot where the incident occurred” he stated.
Mr Forson said the personnel were able to salvage over 200 stores including makeshift structures stressing that an Electricity Company of Ghana(ECG) sub-station which was ten metres away from the Mall was not affected by the fire due to the timely intervention of the personnel.
