Over 200 shops have been destroyed by fire at the Makola Shopping Mall opposite the Ghana School of Law in Accra.
The fire started at around 11:00pm last night, Friday, October 20, 2023 and was brought under control within four and half hours by personnel of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS).
It is however not clear what started the fire but the GNFS says it is still investigating the cause of the fire.
Items destroyed include wigs, perfumes, cosmetics and jewelleries among other items running into thousands of Ghana cedis. There were no casualties.
Briefing the media on the situation, the Deputy Director, Operations of GNFS, Chief Fire Officer, Kofi Forson explained that fire personnel had a distress call around 11:24pm on Friday night and because there was a fire station located around the Mall, in less than two minutes fire personnel got to the scene to bring the situation under control.
He said because the fire was intense they further called for reinforcement with more fire fighting equipment.
“In all nine fire fighting appliances were used with 70 fire personnel trying to bring the fire under control; they forced open the padlocks locking the main entrance to the Mall, using special equipment and got access to the spot where the incident occurred” he stated.