Fire destroys six stores at Tamale Central market

Six stores at the Tamale Central Market were gutted by fire yesterday, with the cost of items destroyed running into thousands of cedis.

Some of the items destroyed included textiles, bags of rice and sugar, provisions and two refrigerators.  

Two of the six shops were completely destroyed by the fire.

While some of the shop owners blamed the fire on the current load shedding, other shop owners attributed it to arson.

There were rumours in the town that it was arson but when the Daily Graphic contacted the Northern Regional Police Public Relations Officer, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), Ebenezer Tetteh, he said the police were still  conducting investigations but no arrest had been made.

Cause of fire

The Regional Chief Fire Officer, Assistant Chief Fire Officr Douglas Koyiri, said the station received an anonymous call at about 5:35 a.m. that part of the central market was on fire.

He said some men from the station were quickly dispatched to the scene and they managed to prevent the fire from spreading.

The chairman of the traders association, Mr Afa Laminu, commended the Fire Service for the timely intervention which prevented the fire from spreading.

He appealed to the city authorities to create access routes in the market  to enable the fire service to attend to such  emergency situations.

Two of the victims, Madam Azara Issah and Hajia Abiba (aka ‘Never’), who were able to salvage some of their items, said they went for loans for the items and, therefore, appealed to the government to come to their aid.