Red Light Market Burns Again: Fire Destroys 13 Stores in Second Major Blaze in Four Months

Published: April 29, 2026

PAYNESVILLE — Sellers scrambled to jump from upper-floor windows and explosions rocked a commercial building in Red Light Market on Wednesday as a fire that started in a mattress store tore through 13 businesses, destroying millions of dollars in goods and leaving some owners with nothing to salvage.

The blaze, which burned for more than two hours before the Liberia National Fire Service brought it under control, gutted a one-story commercial building opposite the Zone 9 police depot, destroying stores stocked with building materials, electronics, mattresses and mixed goods owned by both Lebanese and Liberian traders. No deaths or injuries were reported.

It was the second major fire to strike Red Light Market in less than four months.

Oussama, a Lebanese businessman who owned four of the 13 affected stores under his King Material Building Store enterprise, lost his entire inventory.

“Nothing we were able to take from there,” he said. “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 confirmed the fire originated in one of his stores stocked with mattresses before spreading rapidly through the building.

Witnesses said explosions from generators and kerosene stored inside accelerated the blaze, sending thick black smoke over the market area as thousands of onlookers watched. Several traders on the upper floor narrowly escaped by leaping onto adjacent buildings.

Jeff Keddeh, a technician working nearby, credited the fire service with preventing a wider disaster.

“If not, it would have been worse. This could have spread beyond the building that was damaged,” he said.

Michael Davis, a businessman operating near the scene, said the speed of the fire gave traders no chance to respond.

“The fire started down here in the mattress store. Before we could react, it escalated across the other stores. Nobody was able to take anything out,” Davis said.

P. Edwin Tisdell, deputy director for operations at the Liberia National Fire Service, confirmed there were no casualties but described property losses as “massive.” He said the cause of the fire would be determined through an investigation.

The financial toll on affected businesses is still being assessed.