A massive fire broke out Sunday at a popular market known as “China Town” or “Douche Municipal” in Cameroon’s commercial hub of Douala, local authorities said on Monday.
The fire started around 5 p.m., local time, Sunday and continued until 5 a.m., Monday when firefighters were able to extinguish the flames, witnesses told Xinhua.
Video footage, taken at the site where mostly Chinese business people sell goods, showed the fire ripping through structures and goods.
“I lost everything in the fire,” said Jones Watat, who owned a clothing and shoe shop at the market, adding that the devastating fire gutted hundreds of shops.
“The situation is under control now. No one has died, but the material destruction caused by the fire is quite heavy,” Samuel Dieudonne Ivaha Diboua, governor of the Littoral region where Douala is the chief town, said over the phone.
The cause of the fire is being investigated.
