A fire raged through a downtown market in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince on Monday destroying several stores and stalls. The blaze erupted in the morning at about 5:30 am local time and burned about 95% of the buildings and products in Delmas.
The Delmas market sells clothes shipped in from the Dominican Republic to be resold in Haiti. While firefighters tried to combat the flames, stock and warehouses worth millions of gourdes (the Haitian currency) went up in smoke.
Traders have called upon the government to come to their aid and to provide compensation.
Prime Minister Ariel Henry, currently in Jamaica, expressed his sympathy with the merchants who were victims of this fire "I was shocked to learn of the fire which devastated the Marché 2000, at Delmas 29, early this morning" he said.
"We will determine the cause of this accident".
