The Executive Secretary of the Bureau of Public Safety has advised the Ghana National Fire Service and city authorities to shut down market operations anytime there is fire safety education.

According to Nana Yaw Akwada, if the markets are closed for cleaning purposes, the same could be done whenever there is public education on fire safety.

“If we can shut down our market for clean-up exercises then we should be able to shut down these markets for fire education,” he said.

This comes after parts of Kantamanto Market were destroyed by fire on Tuesday with many properties and goods valued at millions of Ghana Cedis being burnt.

Nana Yaw Akwada said to prevent this from happening, during public education, all market operations must cease.

“Most market women tend not to concentrate on the training which was given to them as they focus their attention on selling their wares…I understand this is what happens, when Fire Service goes to these markets to educate the traders, they go with big speakers to play music for the traders to dance and when it’s time for the actual talk, that is when they remember to sell their wares,” he said.

He made this known in an interview on JoyNews’ The Pulse on Tuesday.

Mr. Akwada continued that, there should be the award of certificates for traders who participate in the fire training to encourage others to join such exercises.

Speaking on the safety measures to be put in place in the prevention of fire outbreaks, he said that the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) should also supervise the wiring of new markets since nine out of 10 fire outbreaks are caused by electrical failures.