Fear grips Makola cloth sellers after fire outbreaks

The Makola Cloth sellers Association have appealed to the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) to beef up security in the market to ensure maximum protection of their goods against fires that had become rampant of late.

Mrs Elizabeth Mensah, President of the association told the Ghana News Agency in an interview that a fire gutted the second-hand cloth sellers portion of the market and this must be investigated to know the cause, adding that, the backgrounds of security personnel in the market should also be checked.

She expressed concerns about the spate of unfortunate fires in which majority of traders have lost millions of properties and attributed it to tailors using industrial machines and chop-bar operators cooking with gas within the market.

“Market places are not industrial areas where industrial machines are used to draw more power” she noted, adding that the chop-bars in the market are all using gas.

“You can just imagine what it would be like if there should be a fire in the market”, she explained.

Mrs Mensah urged the AMA to put in the right measures to prevent future occurrences of fire outbreaks and expressed her deepest sympathy to the Kantamanto and Makola fire victims.

Nana Okraku Ohene, a cloth seller at Makola in an interview also raised concerns about lack of trust on the part of the security in the market to ensure total protection for their wares, hence the need for all them to be changed or investigated.

Mr Justice Amarlia Tetteh, Chairman of the second-hand cloth sellers, whose area was gutted by a fire, in an interview told the GNA that negligence was always the cause of many fires in markets in Accra.

“I wish to take this opportunity to appeal to the AMA and our members, social partners and other stakeholders to ensure that permanent modern market structures are put in place to curb the rampant fires in the market”, he explained.

Mr Tetteh expressed his deepest sympathy to Miss Rose Ayim, a seamstress who lost her machines and over 20 pieces of cloths.

Source: GNA