Kantamanto fire outbreak: We're not surprised, our market was set ablaze - Traders claim

Some traders have said they are not shocked about the fire disaster that occurred at the Kantamanto market, one of Ghana’s biggest trading centre Wednesday, December 16.

They alleged that, they had a tip-off months ago that the market would be set ablaze for unknown reasons after a similar incident happened at the Circle Odawna pedestrian shopping mall.

In an interview with GhanaWeb, the Youth Chairman of Kantamanto market, Ekumfi Ameyaw, stated that based on the tip-off, leadership of the market took a step to curb the unfortunate incident by employing security personnel to safeguard the place.

Though they tried their best, the hoodlums manoeuvred through to set parts of the market ablaze.

In an interview with GhanaWeb, the Youth Chairman, making the same argument as some traders said, “We had information that the market would be set ablaze. Due to this, we have over the months employed security personnel to watch over the market. We were contacted about 9:45 pm that the market has been engulfed with fire…We know the culprits would be apprehended by the security personnel.”

He noted that over 800 shops have been destroyed by the inferno.

Mr Ameyaw further lauded the Ghana National Fire Service for their swift response to douse the fire to prevent more shops from catching the fire.