Wood market gutted

The Anloga wood market in Kumasi was razed to the ground by fire on Tuesday night destroying huge quantities of finished and unfinished products.

The market, located along the Kumasi-Accra highway close to the Kumasi Airport Junction, serves as the only market for wood and wood products in the Kumasi metropolis.

Though the cost of property lost is yet to be officially estimated, it is believed to run into millions of cedis.

Tuesday's tragedy is the seventh in about three years.

Fire Service personnel spent about two-hours to combat the fire that started at 10pm.

Fire Service officials were trying to find out what caused the fire with the help of the carpenters located there who lost property.

The incident has brought to the fore the need for the carpenters to move to the wood village at Sokoban to make way for the rehabilitation of the road.

An eyewitness said that the fire outbreak might have been caused by some two suspected Indian hemp or "wee" smokers who threw stubs into the heaped sawdust.

An opinion leader at the wood market, Reverend Togbe Fugah, appealed to benevolent organisations for assistance for the victims to start their businesses again.

In another incident, a six-bedroom house at Asuoyeboa, in Kumasi was also burnt to ashes on Tuesday.

A tenant of the house was said to have collapsed on realizing that ¢10 million he had kept in his room to pay a debt had turned to ashes.

Source: The Ghanaian Times