The fire which started around 2pm was doused by a joint team of fire tenders from Abelenkpe and Ministries branches of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS).

There was no casualty and the cause of the fire is not yet established.

Speaking to Citi News, Kenser Manford whose shop was completely burnt indicated that, although the firefighters got to the scene on time, they were unable to recover their items.

“We actually heard that the fire started from the back, but we don’t know where it started from. By the time we realised, everything was gone. Even though, the firefighters were swift, the intensity of the fire took everything away.

“All we can boast of is the ones you can see on the ground, we took nothing. We leave it to the experts to determine the cause of the fire.  It started around 10am, we are the biggest casualty, I’m sure it started for a very long time before it got to our shop,” he lamented.

Meanwhile, ADOII Alex Nartey with the Public Relations Department of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) urged the public to avoid making hasty conclusions when there is a fire outbreak.

“The cause of the fire is unknown yet, different people are saying different things, until we are done with investigations, we cannot pre-empt the cause of the fire. We had to rely on our men from the ministries and Abelenkpe fire stations to douse off the fire.

“How we operate, people don’t understand. When they come, and we are cooling-off other places for the fire from burning, then they will be giving instructions as to why we are not attending to the fire at their end as well. When our men arrive at fire scenes then they will be insulting them. It’s not nice, they should stop mocking our efforts. We make sure that if there are persons trapped, we try to rescue them, people should learn to understand how we work,” he advised.