THREE MUSHILI MARKET SHOPS GUTTED  

Fri, 27 Oct 2017 12:02:29 +0000

By Violet Tembo

THREE shops at Kasengu market in Mushili Township in Ndola have been reduced to ashes after a fire swept through the structures, destroying property worth millions of kwacha.

Eye witnesses told Daily Nation that people noticed the fire just outside the main market before midnight.

The structures gutted include a saloon, barbershop and retail shop. Bwana Mkubwa Constituency area Member of parliament (MP) Dr. Jonas Chanda confirmed the development in a press statement issued to Daily Nation.

Dr. Chanda said that four marketeers had been lost goods in the inferno. He said an eye witness told him that two men had a dispute before fire gutted the shops that evening and that the suspects had since been picked up by the police.

The MP said he was waiting for the outcome of the investigations. Dr. Chanda applauded Ndola City Council (NCC) fire brigade services for the rapid response. “Fire fighters came in time and put out the fire quickly before it could spread further.

“I also wish to inform the people in the constituency that I have engaged the Ministry of Local Government to help in constructing new modern markets in the densely populated areas of the constituency which are more fire-resistant.

Kansengu market is poorly constructed with no access roads to the main market as plots for shops were allocated haphazardly ignoring the original plans from the council,” he said.

Dr. Chanda explained that traders from Kasengu main market had stopped trading from the shelter because of its inhabitable state.

He charged that in its state, the market in was a near disaster if nothing was done to improve the structure, adding that the market had no access roads.

He stated that Kasengu represents a highly densely populated area hence the Ministry of local government had been engaged to put up a modern structure at the site.