Kaneshie Market Goes Up In Flames in Chain Reaction of Market Fires

The Kaneshie market in Accra went up in flames on Saturday 19th December in the wee hours of the night.

As at the time of going to press, the cause of the fire was not yet known.

A video footage of the disaster captures a bonfire blazing away from within the main story building housing the selling center. 

Some traders who sell at the market were heard lamenting that the market lacks basic fire safety response and does not have even one fire tender within the vicinity of the market for emergencies such as the Saturday night fire.

Interestingly, the Kaneshie market fire came exactly three days after Kantamanto, a popular used clothes market in Accra also caught fire on December 16th.

A day before the Kantamanto fire, another market at Koforidua in the Eastern Region had also caught fire in what is increasingly becoming apparent that the infernos may be a coordinated attack by arsonists.

There has been speculations about politically motivated plots to use the market fires to score an unknown point, but both the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) have traded accusations over such fire incidents.