The Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) has urged Kantamanto market authorities to rebuild the facility with modern fire safety standards to reduce the risk of future outbreaks. Speaking on the Channel One Newsroom on April 19, Greater Accra Regional Commander, ACFO II Rashid Nisawu, emphasized that despite previous reconstruction efforts, the market remains vulnerable due to the continued use of wooden structures such as wawa boards and plywood.
Nisawu stressed the need for fire-resistant materials and essential safety features like smoke detectors, heat detectors, and flame detectors to enhance fire prevention measures. He noted that markets should operate strictly within designated hours—opening in the morning and closing by evening—to prevent traders from using them as residences, which increases fire hazards.
“They have reconstructed the market, and I am on record saying that until we try and dedicate these markets and say these markets should be reconstructed to modern standards where we can get smoke detectors, heat detectors, flame detectors, using fire-resistant materials to construct, get to know that this is a market, we open the market at 6 o’clock, we close it at six in the evening, that people will not use the market as dwelling places, we will continue to have challenges,” Nisawu said.
“So my advice is that they should try as much as possible and reconstruct the market to befit modern standards, and let’s move away from these wooden structures that we use wawa boards and plywood and other things.”
