Saidy Muhammed Jallow, a victim of the fire, said the fire started at his brother Alpha’s shop.
Explaining incident, Mr Jallow said: “My brother was trying to refill the finish cooking gas when the cable with current got caught up and sparked and the unexpected happened. The fire started in his shop and then spread to the remaining shops and burnt everything.”
He lamented further: “We were unable to protect or remove any valuables from the shops. I have lost cash of D250,000 and cannot estimate the value of the properties lost.”
Ebrima Jallow, another victim of the inferno, said: “I sell food commodities in my shop and I have now lost everything and a cash over D300,000 got burned.”
Aji Madam Jobe, another victim, who sells abayas, children clothes, veils, shoes among other items, said if she was to estimate the worth of the shop, it would be over D2 million dalasis.
She calls on the authorities for help, since they have also been contributing to the country’s economy thus need support to restart their businesses.
While properties worth millions of dalasis perished in the inferno, no casualties were reported at the time of filing this report.
Eyewitnesses said the fire rescue service were able to prevent the fire from spreading to the neighboring houses.
In its statement on the incident, the Kanifing Municipal Council (KMC) stated: “The Council deeply sympathises with the victims of this unfortunate incident and is working closely with all the stakeholders to mitigate future occurrence.
“The public is hereby reassured that no part of the market structures is affected by this fire outbreak. The council will continue to be very much vigilant to ensure that our markets are safe for all to do business.”
