Moissim market here Wednesday evening completely gutted about 40 shops resulting in heavy material losses. Colonel Ali Al-Mentashri, spokesman of the Civil Defense in Makkah, said more than 15 firefighting teams and 20 water tankers were pressed into service to contain the fire which engulfed the shops mostly dealing with furniture, household appliances and high fashion men's clothing. This is the sixth fire incident in the market in the recent past, sources said. Ahmad Al-Ottaibi, Director of the market's management, blamed the apathetic attitude of the municipality's branch at Al-Sharai for the fire. The management, he said, furnished an office for the municipality supervisors a year ago. “But since then not a single supervisor has come to the market.” He said the market's management is in the process of filing a complaint against the Al-Sharai municipality's branch because of its laxity and negligence of its supervisors who are responsible for organizing the market and supervising those involved in sales. He said that Civil Defense has repeatedly warned about the threat of chaos and disorganization prevailing in the market. “Despite all these repeated warnings, none of the authorities concerned have attempted to correct the situation in the market which is frequented daily by thousands of shoppers,” he added.
