Ten fire tenders have been deployed by the Ghana National Fire Service to fight the inferno at the Makola market.
The incident took officers hours to before finally quenching the fire which ravaged millions of Ghana cedis.
The affected building is a three-storey directly opposite the Makola Mall in the central business district. The inferno is reported to have started around 9 am on Monday on the last floor of the three-storey building.
According to an eye witness, when the fire started, they quickly reported the incident to the Tudu Fire Service Station located few metres from the building but it took fire officers some two hours before coming to the scene.
The eye witness said when the officers came, they claimed ‘there was no water in the tender’ to douse the flames.
The fire then spread to the other floors destroying properties as traders and other spectators looked on helpless
Reinforcement was deployed to the scene when the fire escalated and had to deploy ten fire tenders and a turntable to quench the flame.
Speaking at the scene, the Mayor of Accra, Mr Mohammed Adjei Sowah and some representatives from the Metropolitan Assembly also visited the scene to access firsthand the severity of the inferno.
Mr Sowah said the fire service could not respond to the initial calls of the traders due to inaccessibility to water.
According to him, although the Tudu Fire Service Station has water hydrant getting water for the equipment was the issue.
“The GFS are fighting the fire to the best of their ability; however, information on reaching me is that, access to water has been the problem.
“Therefore, at this moment, I want us to focus on fighting the fire and then when we are done, we can assess the situation and give a proper report on what has transpired.
“We have water hydrant but we don’t have enough water and that is the problem,” Accra Mayor stated.
