Fire has swept through over 25 shops at the Alabar-French line in the Kumasi Metropolis of the Ashanti Region, destroying goods worth Millions of Ghana cedis.

The inferno according to eyewitnesses started in one shop at around 7:00 a.m. on Sunday, December 10, 2023, and later spread to other shops, destroying shops and wares.

Some witnesses in an interview with OTEC News reporters Jacob Agyenim Boateng and Maame Akosua Gyamfuaa Sunday said they suspect the fire to have been triggered by an electrical fault in the shop where it all started.

They revealed that items amounting to thousands of Ghana cedis have been destroyed by the inferno.

They added that it took the intervention of officials from the Ghana National Fire Service to prevent the situation from escalating.

Some affected victims recounted their losses when they spoke to OTEC News, '' I heard about the fire and rushed to the market to try and salvage some of my wares but I couldn't pick anything from my shop because the fire had already destroyed everything'.

Another said “I have restocked my shop with wares worth thousands of cedis. I bought some with my own money and others on credit, and now I have lost them all"

The Deputy Ashanti Regional Fire Commander DO1 Rashid Missaw said they have commenced investigations into the fire incident

He noted that the actual cause of the fire remains unknown and is currently under investigation.

According to DO1 Rashid Missaw it took five fire tenders and dozens of fire officials to douse off the fires

He added that their officials had no access to the epicenter of the fire making it difficult for them to stop it almost immediately.