Forty Nine shops guts fire, Daily Graphic, May 27, 2013 page 1

FORTY-NINE shops were destroyed by fire at the Makola Shopping Mall in Accra, last Friday.
The fire which destroyed wooden structures started at midnight.
When the Daily Graphic reached the scene around 4:45 a.m. on Saturday, the gates to the shopping mall were locked, while the police and the market security stood on guard.
When the gates were finally opened at around 7:30a.m, anxious traders rushed in to check their shops.
While some victims of the fire could not stand the sight of their burnt shops and stall and burst into uncontrollable tears, others whose shops were not affected gave thanks to God.
The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained.
The affected shop owners traded in jewelry and cosmetics.  
The Deputy Public Relations Officer of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), Prince Billy Anaglate, told the Daily Graphic that they received a call three minutes after 12 midnight that fire had gutted the Makola Shopping Mall.
He said personnel of the Fire Service got to the scene within five minutes with about six fire engines to fight the fire.
An official of the Makola Shopping Mall told the Daily Graphic that management would brief the media in the course of the week.
In a related development, officials of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) have demolished newly erected wooden structures being used as stalls by traders at the Kantamanto Market in Accra.
The exercise was said to have taken place in the early hours of yesterday.
However, traders at the market are said to be fuming with rage, describing the exercise as a breach of an agreement they reached with the city authorities at a recently held meeting.
Mr Evans Ofori Atta, Vice Chairman of the Second-hand Clothes Sellers Association at Kantamanto, told Joy News that he was at church when information reached him about the exercise, and faulted the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) for that unilateral decision.
He said what he found surprising was that the AMA had not complained about the new structures put up by the traders.
According to Mr Ofori Atta, there had been dialogue between members of the association and the assembly, and as such he could not fathom why the AMA would carry out such an exercise without giving them a hint.
The Kantamanto Market was razed down by fire early this month, destroying property running into thousands of Ghana cedis.