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Traders at the Mallam Market, near the Mallam Junction, who are yet to recover from the shock of a fire outbreak at the market, are blaming power outages for their predicament. The fire, according to some traders who spoke to The Finder, began at about 6am yesterday and swept through several shops, including some warehouses. Eye witnesses, who are also traders in the market, said they saw electric wires burning and in no time some shops caught fire. Several calls made to the Fire Service, according to them, were futile. It took quite some time before firemen appeared on the scene, they maintained. When The Finder got to the scene at about 7 am, the market was inundated with smoke as the fire still raged wildly sending up torrents of thick, black smoke. More than six fire tenders were on the ground and were working feverishly to douse the fire. �At about 6 am this morning we saw smoke up there above one of the shops, but we couldn't exactly tell the source so one of the men here quickly called the Fire Service. The fire had caused enough damage before firemen arrived on the scene,� said one trader. Though she was unhappy with the delayed response of the fire team, she also blamed their unfortunate situation on the lack of access routes into the market. �When the Fire Service team got here there was no way into the market so they could not get any closer to douse the fire, which was by then spreading wildly to the other shops,� she added. Wailing uncontrollably, Mrs. Janet Osei, owner of two provisions shops, said she lost over GH�10,000 worth of goods, and attributed the cause of the fire to frequent power outages in the Mallam locality. �The dum so, dum so has burnt and destroyed our businesses. No one cooks here; the fire started from one of the electric poles at the information centre, I�m told. So here we are back to square one,� she wailed. According to her, she �recently took delivery of goods to the tune of GH�10,000 and that�s different from my old stock; they are all gone.� Deputy Public relations officer for the Ghana National Fire Service, Divisional Officer (Grade three), Mr. Prince Billy Anaglate, in an interview, described the response of his fire team as timely, and rather cited the poor accessibility to the market as a major challenge. �Looking at the type of structures here, which have impeded our movements, and the fact that the storage facilities here have a lot of combustible materials in them, we have made the best of the situation,� he said. Asked about the exact cause of the fire, Mr. Anaglate said it was too early to know, adding that his outfit was still carrying out investigations to ascertain the cause. He, however, debunked claims by some traders that the fire was caused by electrical faults on one of the electric poles close to the information centre.