A building near the Tamale Central Market in the Northern Region was on Sunday morning engulfed by fire; destroying several shops and goods.

According to people affected by the incident, goods worth thousands of Ghana cedis have been lost to the fire.

Due to the intervention of the Ghana National Fire Service, the fire was doused to prevent further spread.

Northern Regional Public Relations Officer for the Fire Service, Musah Hudu, said they received a distress call from Accra at about 5:08am that there was a fire outbreak in the region.

"We quickly dispatched a team and they arrived here at 5:15am to stop the fire from spreading to other facilities," he added.

Mr Hudu noted that the fire was at full blown stage when they arrived, however, with the assistance of two fire stations, they managed to control the fire.

According to him, although the cause of the fire is currently unknown, it is alleged that the fire started from a room which had no occupant.

A number of shops he said were destroyed.

“From what we are seeing, it involves clothing, some ingredients meant for cooking, glass work. They also do glass work here. We are told that everything in the glass work shop was burnt including physical cash. That is what our men are currently sorting out to determine the way forward."

Owner of a glass store, Ibrahim Jawal, interacting with JoyNews said he was home when he received a call from his brother informing him of the incident.

“We deal in glasses, tinted glasses and frames. The frames were burnt and the glasses broken. We could not pick anything. Actually, we could not take the cash in the shop to the bank because it is not a weekday. It is my brother who usually takes it to the bank and because it was a weekend, we were waiting to send it on Monday but unfortunately this incident happened," he added.

Mr. Jawal said he is unable to tell how much is lost in the fire but quickly added that his goods were worth thousands of Ghana cedis.

A trader, Zakia Mumuni, said she lost a majority of her spices to the fire. She managed to salvage a few packs.

“As you can see everything is burnt, but these are the few things we are able to get. All I can say is I leave everything to God," she said whiles wailing.

Meanwhile, the Northern Region has recorded 76 fire outbreaks since the beginning of the year.