Published: May 4, 2026
PAYNESVILLE — Leakor Walker had May 3 circled on his calendar, the day he and his partner, Yougie Flomo, planned to open their new store in Red Light Market. Instead, Walker stood before a blackened storeroom over the weekend, pointing to charred shelves that once held generator spare parts and power saws.
“We prepared this place with goods stocked to move it here on the third of May, only to come and meet this,” he said.
The April 29 fire that tore through a one-story commercial building opposite the Zone 9 police depot gutted 13 stores, destroyed millions of dollars in goods, and, for traders like Walker, erased plans that took months or years to build. It was the second major fire to strike Red Light Market in less than four months.
The Liberia National Fire Service brought the blaze under control after more than two hours. No deaths or injuries were reported, but Deputy Director for Operations P. Edwin Tisdell described property losses as “massive” and said an investigation to determine the cause was underway.
For Walker, the destruction was total. “I’m very depressed because this is the only survival for me and my co-heads,” he said. “It carried me back and unbalanced.”
Welding Suspected
Walker and Flomo say they believe the fire was set off by welding work inside a mattress store owned by a Lebanese businessman, and that the work was conducted without adequate safety controls.
“I continue to say that this fire was caused by the welding that was going on in their area where there was no control to the work,” Walker said. Petty trader Esther Harris, who also lost goods in the fire, confirmed that welding was taking place in one of the stores when the blaze started.
Oussama, a Lebanese businessman who owned four of the 13 affected stores under his King Material Building Store enterprise, told The Liberian Investigator in earlier reporting that the fire originated inside one of his mattress stores. He confirmed losing his entire inventory. “In a place where you have plenty goods, which one will you take and which one will you leave behind? So I lost everything,” he said.
Witnesses at the time reported that explosions from generators and kerosene stored inside accelerated the blaze, sending thick black smoke over the market as thousands of onlookers gathered. Traders on the upper floor narrowly escaped by leaping onto adjacent buildings.
The fire service has not yet announced findings from its investigation.
Thieves Moved With the Smoke
For Harris, the chaos of the fire brought a second wave of loss. When the first shouts of “fire” went up, she ran toward the building to help. When she turned back, her table had been picked over.
“When we first ran there to help, the area was overshadowed by smoke,” she said. “Criminals moved in and took almost all my goods.” She lost slippers, a barrow full of earpods and inventory her siblings depended on. “When we take one load and come back, they have taken another. It’s not all lost in the fire we went through.”
Jerome B. Jones, landlord of a neighboring property that did not burn, described the same pattern. “When there’s news of fire, as you try to take your things, others are there to steal, and that was what happened to us,” he said.
Debt as a Recovery Plan
One woman who sells bedsheets and clothing near the damaged building had no insurance and no savings remaining after the fire. A loan was her only option to restock.
“I’m just from taking a loan to continue my market because of what I went through that day,” she said, standing near walls now visibly cracked from the blaze. “The only thing I can say is thank God we still get life.”
Nearly a week after the fire, another affected trader, Mohammed, was back inside the compromised structure, salvaging what he could despite its uncertain condition.
“The building isn’t safe, but what to do?” he said.
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