Fire destroys warehouse at Winneba Market

Fire gutted a warehouse at the Winneba Main Market last Thursday evening, destroying items worth hundreds of thousands of Ghana cedis.
The 40-foot container was a cold store 10 years ago but has now been converted into a warehouse. The affected traders who had no place to keep their items kept them in part of the warehouse for a fee, while part of it had deep freezers.
According to information received, there was lights out in the entire Winneba town around 12:30 p.m. but when the lights came back around 6:30 p.m., there were intermittent power outages which may have caused the fire around 7:30 p.m.
Items destroyed by the fire included cosmetics, children’s wear, foot wear, cooking oil, food items and plastic plates, among others.
However, officials of the Fire Service responded timely and in about 45 minutes were able to bring the fire under control.
When the Daily Graphic got the market on Friday morning at about 8 a.m, the entire market had been locked, with only officials of the Ghana National Fire Service, Police Service, the National Disaster Management Organisation and some of the affected traders in the market trying to salvage some of the items.
There was stampede at the entrance of the market, as some other traders who had come to sell (it was a market day in Winneba) were not allowed to enter the market apparently to prevent a chaotic situation in the market, as well as prevent some miscreants from taking advantage of the situation to steal the items of the traders.
There was uncontrollable wailing by some of the victims who had lost their wares.
A 35-year-old cosmetics seller, Grace Mensah, said that her items (worth GH¢6,000) had all been destroyed by the fire.
Another trader, Madam Harriet Entsia, who deals in foot wear, saucepans and children’s clothing also lost goods worth GH¢1,700 and was seen crying as she stood by her burnt items.
The Effutu Municipal Fire Commander, DO1 Ebenezer Akrong, said that the timely response by his outfit prevented the fire from spreading to other parts of the market.
He said the Fire Service had a fire safety post at the market which ensured that all lights are turned off by traders before leaving the market, with the exception of the power at the cold store.
DO1 Akrong indicated that investigations would be immediately conducted to ascertain the cause of the fire.
The Effutu Municipal Chief Executive, Nii Ephraim, led a team from the assembly to the market and assured the affected traders that after assessment had been completed, the government through the assembly would provide the necessary support for them.