General News of Thursday, 19 August 2021
Source: www.ghanaweb.com
2021-08-19
The shop occupants used a generator after a power cut
• The AMA committee have revealed their findings
• According to the report the fire started from a generator
• The committee has ordered for the demolition of the building
The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) committee probing the fire incident that occurred at the Makola market on July 5, 2021, found that the fire was caused by a generator.
The shop occupants used a generator after a power cut and it caught fire. The fire spread to other parts of the three-storey building, the report cited.
The fire started from the hair and cosmetic products shop and razed several shops causing lots of damage to a tune of thousands of cedis.
A committee was set up to probe the incident which many traders blamed on the fire service for not attending to the fire on time.
The findings presented by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly committee led by the assembly’s chief executive, Mohammed Nii Adjei Sowah, revealed that “over 90 percent [of the traders at the mall] own and use small-sized generators…but lately because there is no dumsor, it appears regularly servicing their generators has been forgotten.”
According to the report, bad electrical wiring also resulted in the fire and the building would be pulled down as the fire has weakened the components of the building.
Nii Adjei Sowah said, “the committee also observed that naked and hazardous exposure of electrical wiring in the building coupled with bad electrical wiring especially by unprofessional electricians and the use of substandard gadgets is very worrying.”
“The services of the 48 Regiment Engineers of the Ghana Armed Forces were contracted to pull down the building,” the AMA boss said.
