Some of the traders who lost their wares in the fire outbreak at Makola last Friday have begun clearing the debris in preparation for reconstruction works on their shops and stalls, scheduled to start this week. The traders, some of whom had wailed and wept upon seeing their goods and other property being burnt to ashes, looked quite composed as they prepared to start new lives after losing their investments to the disaster, the second in five years. When the Daily Graphic visited the market Monday, many of the traders were seen removing the debris to create space for the reconstruction works. The Accra Metropolitan Authority (AMA) went into a marathon closed-door session with leaders of the traders' associations to strategise on the way forward. Meanwhile, a source close to the meeting hinted the Daily Graphic team that the discussions centred on ways to prevent a recurrence of the fire incident. It said the meeting considered the construction of proper walkways, access routes for fire tenders and the use of better materials to withstand fire in the rebuilding plan. According to the source, also high on the agenda was the issue of the use of gas cookers at the market and decongesting to remove any likelihood of fire and also allow easy access to the market in the event of fires. In an interview, the owner of a financial services company, Mr. Justice Amarlai Tetteh, said although the exact cause of the outbreak was still unknown, he believed it might have been caused by the negligence of some trader. He said the market was so congested that the movement of traders became very difficult. Mr Tetteh called on the authorities to make safety and easy access key components in their reconstruction plans to avoid a recurrence of the unfortunate, incident. For instance, he suggested that “the wooden structures must be changed to concrete during reconstruction in order to make the stalls more secure and permanent". Another trader who only mentioned her name as Auntie Akua asked the AMA not to attempt to sideline any trader whose shop or stall was affected in the fire. "We are already in pain and we will not want anybody to cause us more pain by telling us later, when the place has been reconstructed, that we have no place here," she added. Others called for government support to enable them to start new lives. Source: Daily Graphic