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Huge Ivory Coast market wrecked by fire
BOUAKE, Ivory Coast, Aug 27, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – The main market in Bouake,
Ivory Coast’s second biggest city, was largely destroyed Tuesday in an
overnight blaze, although there were no known casualties, an AFP
correspondent reported.
The fire broke out around 2:00 am (0200 GMT) and spread fast, market
watchmen said.
It took around seven hours to bring under control, mobilising several
hundred firefighters, police and troops, partly to put out the blaze but also
to secure the area.
“This tragedy has most fortunately caused no loss of life,” Bouake mayor
Nicolas Djibo said, adding though that he was “dumbstruck by the scale of the
damage”.
Djibo said the fire had begun in the butchers’ area of the market, which
hosts hundreds of stalls and is a hub of social activity in Bouake, a city of
one million people in the centre of Ivory Coast.
Some traders had been able to remove their wares in time but others wept
at the sight of their loss.
Koffi Rachelle, who sold children’s toys and various gadgets, told AFP she
had lost everything. “I can”t even get into my shop, the fire has destroyed
everything over there,” she said in tears.
An inquiry into the fire has been opened, according to a police source who
asked not to be named.
The market, which had an area of between eight and nine hectares (about 22
to 22 acres), had been razed by a fire in 1998.
Experts had been studying a proposal to house the stalls in a large modern
building before the latest blaze.
BSS/AFP/SSS/2003 hrs