Victims of the Tip Toe Lane fire outbreak at Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra yesterday began counting their losses when The Ghanaian Times visited the scene to assess the extent of damage caused.
The victims were seen sifting through their burnt properties, while scavengers also seized the opportunity to collect scraps and other materials from the debris of the razed market.
An excavator was busily clearing debris left behind by the incident.
Although the cause of the fire has not yet been officially communicated, victims attributed it to a gas explosion from a store belonging to one of the traders who was cooking at the time.
Ishmael Musa, a victim whose mother sells food and other items in one of the shops, said the incident had left him, his mother, and two sisters in a dilemma.
“Since yesterday we have not been ourselves because all we had is gone. We lost everything to the fire, and now we have been sleeping at the VVIP station since the incident,” he said.
Musa said all his family needed was some support from the government or benevolent individuals to help them start afresh.
He added that the victims had been made to provide their names and other personal information, but nothing had come out of it so far.
Another victim, Dora Frimpong, a trader, said she lost everything, including a refrigerator that had been entrusted to her care.
Dora said her hope was for the authorities to come to their aid so they could get back on their feet; otherwise, life would become unbearable for them.
She also pleaded with authorities not to evict them from the area, explaining that it was the only place where they had traded since childhood.
BY VICTOR A. BUXTON
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