An enormous cleanup operation is happening after a fireplace devastated some of the international’s greatest secondhand garments markets.1000’s of buyers’ stalls have been destroyed within the blaze that began at about 10pm on 1 January and ate up huge sections of Kantamanto marketplace in Accra, Ghana’s capital.The Ghana nationwide fireplace carrier (GNFS) deployed 13 tenders to fight the flames. Items value hundreds of thousands of Ghanaian cedi were destroyed, the GNFS mentioned.“That is devastating,” mentioned Alex King Nartey, a GNFS spokesperson. “We’ve no longer recorded critical casualties, however the financial loss is gigantic.“Initial investigations counsel inaccurate electric connections would possibly have sparked the blaze, despite the fact that we don’t seem to be ruling out arson,” Nartey advised AFP.Other folks scour the charred stays in their stalls after the Kantamanto marketplace fireplace. {Photograph}: Muntaka Chasant/Rex/ShutterstockAs a lot as two-thirds of the marketplace has been destroyed and there are estimates that 8,000 other people were affected, regardless that this quantity is anticipated to upward push.Alhassan Fatawu owned a stall the place he used bits of subject matter from secondhand garments to make and promote his personal designs, and was once notified within the early hours of Thursday morning that the marketplace was once on fireplace.“The person who runs the neighbouring stall referred to as me and mentioned the entirety had burned. I began panicking,” he mentioned. He went to look the wear and tear for himself at about 9am.“I discovered burnt stalls. There have been nonetheless portions burning,” he mentioned. “I couldn’t salvage a factor [from my stall]. The whole lot has long past. Now my day-to-day bread has been lower. I used my stall at Kantamanto to maintain myself.”Sooner than the hearth, Kantamanto was once a sprawling advanced of 1000’s of stalls filled with garments from manufacturers together with H&M, Levi Strauss, Tesco, Primark, New Glance and extra. About 30,000 other people rely in the marketplace for his or her livelihood.In step with the Or Basis, which campaigns towards textile waste in Ghana, 15m secondhand clothes from international locations within the international north comparable to the United Kingdom, america and China arrive on the marketplace each week. The Kantamanto network is accountable for recirculating 25m items of secondhand clothes each month thru resale, reuse, restore and remanufacturing.The marketplace is a colourful hub of creativity and a vital choice to rapid style. The hearth has left many households in misery after catastrophic losses for shops, upcyclers and different marketplace individuals, as products, retail outlets, equipment and gear were destroyed.Other folks scramble a few of the nonetheless smouldering stays to salvage what they may be able to from the fire-devastated Kantamanto secondhand garments marketplace. {Photograph}: Nipah Dennis/AFP/Getty ImagesYayra Agbofah, founding father of the Revival, a community-led organisation growing consciousness, artwork and jobs with textile waste arriving in Ghana, misplaced space for storing within the blaze. He was once on the marketplace on Friday morning together with loads of others, clearing the particles. All that remained of many stalls have been blackened and charred piles of garments and ash.“The function is to rebuild in every week,” he mentioned. “Other folks have to go back to paintings as a result of they don’t have the rest.”He added: “There was no details about what the federal government goes to do. We need to take issues into our personal arms and rebuild our marketplace.“The buyers have misplaced the entirety. So much are in debt. That is their livelihood. There are not any different choices. We need to to find tactics to get our ft again and get started paintings. Your best option is to construct again and get started from scratch. It’s a devastating scenario.”The Or Basis has dedicated $1m (£800,000) to the clean-up effort and is looking at the international style business to pledge give a boost to.Or Basis ingenious director, Daniel Mawuli Quist, mentioned: “Whilst the business continuously touts sustainability as a buzzword or advertising tactic for promoting new merchandise, Kantamanto proves that true sustainability is ready extra than simply new gross sales. It’s about making a round machine that values each a part of the worth chain. It is a important second for the worldwide style ecosystem to turn cohesion.”
