Fire last Sunday afternoon devastated the Nkwanta market destroying about 85 per cent of infrastructure and wares running into millions of cedis.
The whirlwind-propelled fire disaster recorded no casualty but investigations have commenced to ascertain the cause of the fire outbreak.
Mr Joseph Ninkab, Nkwanta District Chief Executive, briefing a team from the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) headed by Mr Henry Ametepe, Volta Regional Coordinator and journalists, said the extent of destruction was enormous.
He said assessment of the disaster was ongoing but indicated 20 warehouses, 29 stores around the market, four pavilions of 32 sheds and 216 local thatch-roofed sheds were consumed in the inferno.
Mr Ninkab said physical development in the market had been embargoed but plans were being initiated to rebuild a modern market with well-designed accessibility, lavatories, refuse dumps and crèche.
He said a market management committee had been constituted, and appealed to traders and market women to channel their grievances for redress.
Mr Ninkab commended the professionalism exhibited by security personnel led by Mr Douglas Kumah, Nkwanta Police Commander, for stabilizing the situation from looting and other nefarious activities, and hailed the effort of the youth rising to the occasion as much-admired.
Mr John Kwao, Nkwanta District Fire Officer, said personnel duties were hampered by the unavailability of a fire tender, means of transport and waning public confidence in the institution's ability to fight fires.
He said unconventional methods were deployed to fight the fire after much damage has been recorded.
Mr Ametepe said the fire disaster was a blessing in disguise for the Assembly to rethink the reconstruction of a modern market for the people to enhance revenue mobilization.
He called on the Assembly to strategise towards ameliorating the suffering of the masses by providing them with basic amenities that would bring change to them, saying those are the tenets of decentralization.
Mr Ametepe indicated that NADMO could only support the Assembly with relief items towards the rebuilding of the market, stressing that "no individual would directly benefit from any aid".