Fire Burns Marché Congo to Ashes

Three years after the 2009 fire incident in Marché Congo, another dreadful fire outbreak gutted about half of the market from the evening of July 3 (about 7 p.m.) up to noon of July 4. At least five people, who suffered shocks and injuries, were rushed to some local hospitals, according to the Secretary General of Wouri Red Cross.

Most of the shops consumed by the wild fire, said to have been provoked by an ill-repaired electrical appliance in one of the shops for tailoring items, were wooden structures. Columns of smoke moved over the skies of Douala II municipality, infiltrated into surrounding homes and business activities around the famous "Ancien Troisième". Frustrated businessmen continued to flutter to and fro the market throughout yesterday, agonising over their losses.

The administration and business community gathered around the market. Far from just deploying security forces to the area, contingents of Marines and ASECNA joined Ngodi Fire Fighters who drove in heavy water tankers and other machineries that only alleviated the escalation by midnight Tuesday, July 3. By morning July 4, the fire had migrated into other neighbouring block-built shops, unnoticed. By 8 a.m., another column of flames broke out from block-built City Council sheds (two storeys, the ground floor composed of an array of 10 containers with valuable goods) packed with merchandise and ravaged far more than it had that night. The President of the Market, Nsangou Mama estimated that slightly more than 450 shops worth several billions have been gutted. For Ngodi Fire Fighting Brigade Commander, Noa Bela, about one-and-a-half hectares of the market have been consumed. An accurate evaluation, however, is yet to be made.

Noa Bela revealed that one difficulty faced by his team was the failure by gendarmes and police to pick up their phone calls on time. "We needed them to break open shops and containers at high risk for us to extinguish the fire that had already started in them and continued into the midday yesterday. So when they came this morning, we opened up some shops and strived to put off the fire." A mixed team of AES Sonel, Red Cross, security, Councils' and the administrative officials, visited the area, putting up strategies to maintain permanent security of the zone. Governor Joseph Beti Assomo who also visited the site July 4, gave firm instructions for an investigation into the cause of the fire outbreak.