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Parts of the Kantamanto market destroyed by fire in Accra. Photos: SAMUEL TEI ADANO
The government has indicated its readiness to support the victims of the fire outbreak in the Kantamanto market in Accra last Tuesday night, so that they can restart their businesses.
Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, who was at the scene of the incident yesterday afternoon to assess the extent of the damage and feel empathy for the merchants, described the incident as tragic, sad and devastating.
He said he would meet with the merchant leadership in his office next Friday to chart the way forward.
Number of victims
In total, around 2,592 people were directly affected by hell, and Dr. Bawumia said there could be many more that would be indirectly affected.
“I will convene a meeting on Friday with the leaders of the merchants to study how to rebuild the market and provide them with an initial amount of money for humanitarian reasons, as well as provide them with some form of capital that allows them to restart their operations. companies, ”said the vice president.
“Of course, there will be an investigation into the disaster, but people’s lives and livelihoods cannot wait for an investigation; they are immediate and that is why we are going to see how to give immediate assistance ”, he added.
Other officials
Dr. Bawumia was accompanied on the visit by the Minister of the Interior, Mr. Ambrose Dery; the Minister of National Security, Mr. Albert Kan Dapaah; the Regional Minister of Greater Accra, Mr. Ishmael Ashietey; her deputy, Ms. Elizabeth Sackey, and officials from the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) and the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO).
Dr. Bawumia informed reporters that the team had come to see things for themselves and added: “I have to say that the situation is devastating; what we have is a human tragedy ”.
Rebuilding market
Dr. Bawumia said the government was already in talks to rebuild the market and would consider the research recommendations and incorporate them into the rebuilding process.
For example, he said, the materials that would be used in the rebuilding exercise would be those that could resist fire, as opposed to the wooden structures that they previously lived in that served as fuel for the fire.
Fire fight
GNFS Public Relations Officer (PRO), Division II Officer Mr. Ellis Robinson Okoe, said the service received a distress call around 11:33 pm last Tuesday and immediately dispatched a fire truck to the place, which arrived at 11:40 pm.
He said that due to the extensive grounds the fire had covered, five more fire trucks were dispatched to the scene to add to the three Ghana Armed Forces tanker trucks, while personnel from other security forces provided protection.
Mr. Okoe said the fire was brought under control at 5 a.m. yesterday, even though there were still pockets of fire in some of the stores.
Although no casualties were reported, he said, in the final stages of fighting the fire, a scavenger who had entered an area of burned remains of burned tents collapsed and suffered some bruising, but was rescued.
The GNFS PRO said that second-hand clothes, sewing machines, food and many other products worth millions of cedis were destroyed.
He added that the service has yet to initiate investigations into the cause of the fire.
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