According to Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, an unattended cooking gas cylinder explosion is what started the Kejetia Market fire.
He offered government support to the impacted traders.
“I asked the Ghana National Fire Service and NADMO what caused the fire and they told me that their investigations revealed that someone, a trader who was cooking rice in her shop using a gas stove and that was the fire started, close to a nearby chemical shop, where they sell gunpowder, carbide, turpentine that resulted in the explosion, he said after he visited the facility to inspect the extent of damage caused by last Wednesday’s fire.
After Dr. Bawumia’s intervention, the Market Complex will reopen to traders on Tuesday, March 21. The facility’s management decided to close down as a result of the fire.
After the first three days, it was decided to close the unaffected areas for a week and the affected area permanently.
Vice President Bawumia, however, stated that the traders can reoccupy their stalls starting on Tuesday in accordance with agreements made with facility management and experts, particularly the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) and the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO), when he visited the facility on Monday, March 20.
“If anything affects you, it affects me and everyone,” he sympathised with the teeming traders, who had resisted the decision by the authorities to shut down the facility by one more week.
“I was taken round, especially where the incident happened. The shops were 33 out of 8,000. I asked the Fire Service and NADMO officials as regards the cause,” the Vice President said in Twi.
The market will be open starting on Tuesday to protect the livelihood of the agitated traders, he claimed, adding that the cause of the fire has been found and assurances have been given that it is not an electrical fault.
According to Dr. Bawumia, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has also promised to assist all of the traders who were impacted by the fire.
