Kantamanto, Sodom and Gomorrah fires could be a deliberate act - Mayor

Accra Mayor, Alfred Vanderpuije, has said Sunday’s fire disaster at the Kantamanto market in Accra may have been a deliberate act.

Mr. Vanderpuije told TV3 in an interview that some of such fire disasters could be deliberate.

He expressed similar sentiments about a similar fire disaster that occurred just two days earlier at major slum area Sodom and Gomorrah near the Agbogbloshie market.

Mr. Vanderpuije has, therefore, issued a stern warning to dwellers and traders in the two areas which were gutted by the separate fires not to begin rebuilding their structures.

Meanwhile, Vice President Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, who visited the Kantamanto market to commiserate with the victims, has instructed the Interior Minister Mr. Kwesi Ahwoi to constitute a Committee of inquiry to probe Sunday’s fire disaster at the Kantamanto market in Accra.

He has also instructed the ministry of finance and other financial institutions of the state to assist the thousands of market women and men whose items were destroyed in the blaze, with some soft loans.

Thick dark smoke was seen billowing into the sky from the market square where thousands of traders, hawkers and many business offices do their trading.

Traders and shop owners were seen making frantic efforts to salvage their goods and merchandise from the inferno.

This is the third time in two years that the same market has been gutted by fire.