Pa Kalifa Sanyang, the public relations officer of The Kanifing Municipal Council (KMC), has said that the recent fire incident at the Serrekunda Market occurred in an area not under the control of the KMC.

Speaking to the Daily Observer yesterday at his office, Mr Sanyang said that the burnt area is the private property of Mr Jibou Jagne, the current interim chairman of KMC, as reported in the Daily Observer last week.

“The stores that got burnt were not the properties of the council,” he said, adding that as far as the council is concerned, since the last fire incident, a series of measures were adopted to minimize the chance of fire outbreak in council controlled areas of the market. These, he said, include a permanent ban on illegal inter-connection of electricity supply among canteen owners as well as the decongestion of crowded areas of the market.

He added that the Municipal Police also conduct routine patrols within the market area to ensure that the policies governing operations in the market are adhered to by all vendors.

Commenting on the forthcoming ‘Tobaski’, Mr Sanyang warned that the council would not allow Tobaski sales (wanterr) on the periphery of the market this year.

“We shall come up with explicit orders to that effect,” he concluded.