Some parts of the Juaben Serwaa Market in Koforidua have been left in ruins after a fire outbreak on Wednesday dawn.

Market stalls, shops and various items were consumed by the inferno that is believed to have started around 2am.

While personnel from the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) have managed to douse the fire, owners of the affected shops have been left devastated by the loss of properties worth millions of Ghana cedis.

The Deputy Public Relations Officer for GNFS in the Eastern region, Daniel Tetteh told JoyNews' Maxwell Kudekor, it took the service some two hours to put out the fire.

“At 4:45 am this morning we received a call that there has been a fire outbreak at the market so we dispatched our first tender which arrived by 4:47 am.

"But when the men got here they saw that the nature of the fire calls for a second pump so a second one came from headquarters. By 6: 25 am the fire was under control and by 6:40 it was totally extinguished,” Daniel Tetteh said.

Expressing their major challenge, the PRO said it was however difficult to get access to the source of the fire due to the congested nature of the market.

“One issue we had when we came here was access to the market. We have always been advocating that at the market places they always make way for the fire tenders to be able to come in case of emergency.

“But when we came there was no access to the seat of the fire so we had to run a number of length of hose. So we are pleading with the market women to take our advice when we say that they should not congest the entrance of the markets but at least leave some space whereby vehicles can pass in case of emergencies.”

Although the cause of the fire is unknown, city authorities have schedule to meet with the market leaders on the possible ways to decongest the market for easy access.

An affected victim tells JoyNews, she was home around 4am when she had a call that the market was on fire.

According to her, she had to call other relatives and colleagues whose shops were closer to hers to alert them of the incident.

She said her sister had gone to Accra for goods to stock her shop, only for it to be destroyed by the fire. She was, therefore, appealing to government to come to their aid.

But calling for calm among the affected person, the Municipal Chief Executive for New Juaben South, Ike Appaw Gyasi said measures will be put in place to prevent a future occurrence.

He said an emergency meeting will also be held to brainstorm how to decongest the market within the shortest possible time.