Fire destroys Elubo Market

Elubo (W/R), April 12,GNA=97 For the second time in six months, fire has gutted the Elubo Market destroying goods worth several millions of Ghana Cedis. The Western Regional Coordinator of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), Mr. Japheth Baidoo, confirmed the last Friday night's incident to the GNA in a telephone interview in Takoradi.

He said NADMO had assessed the extent of damage and had sent a report to the head office in Accra for assistance. Mr. Baidoo deplored the planning and construction of stalls in the market space which made the market susceptible to fire outbreaks. The Regional NADMO Boss noted that the market is congested and stalls built too close to each other in spite of several warnings by the NADMO and the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) about possible fire outbreaks.

He said when fire first gutted the same market in September last year, NADMO officials went there to sympathize and assisted them with some relief items and advised the traders to wait for the Jomoro District Assembly to build permanent structures for them but they refused and rather built wooden structures.

Mr. Baidoo stressed that if the traders continue to build with wooden structures, then fire would also continue to destroy their wares since such structures are susceptible to fire. When the GNA spoke to some traders at the Elubo market, they lamented that, the political crisis in the neighbouring Cote d'Ivoire have had negative repercussion on trading activities since the Ivory Coast side of the border had been closed and that people could not cross to the Ghana side of the border to trade. They appealed to the government to come to their aid or else economic activities in the town would slump.