Fire has swept through over 25 shops at the Alabar-French-line enclave of the Kumasi Central Market in the Kumasi Metropolis of the Ashanti Region, destroying goods and properties worth millions of Ghana cedis.
There were no casualties as the blaze swept through the area in the early hours of Sunday before stores opened, fire officials said.
At least five fire engines were deployed to contain the blaze, which spread quickly in the trading area due to the large amount of flammable items such as cooking oil and plastic.
The fire outbreak caused significant damage to many shops within the enclave selling clothes, phones, locally-made sandals, and medicinal products. The fire began around 7 a.m. on Sunday, leaving shop owners scrambling to save their belongings while others watched helplessly as the flames consumed their livelihoods.
Despite the arrival of the fire tenders, firefighters struggled to bring the blaze under control, with the extensive damage and potentially hazardous materials within the affected area presenting significant challenges for the firefighting efforts.
While some shop owners were able to salvage some of their merchandise, many others have lost their entire inventory and face financial hardship.
The cause of the fire remains unknown and is currently under investigation.
The inferno, according to eyewitnesses, started in one shop and later spread to other shops, destroying shops and wares.
Some witnesses said they suspect the fire to have been triggered by an electrical fault in the shop where it all started, revealing that items amounting to thousands of Ghana cedis have been destroyed.
They added that it took the intervention of officials from the Ghana National Fire Service to prevent the situation from escalating further.

The Deputy Ashanti Regional Fire Commander, DO1 Rashid Missaw, who supervised the operations, said they have commenced investigations into the fire incident. He noted that the actual cause of the fire was not immediately known. According to DO1 Rashid Missaw, it took five fire tenders and dozens of fire officials to douse the fire. He added that their officials had no access to the epicenter of the fire, making it difficult for them to stop it in time.