CAIRO: A day after a fire razed to the ground a busy market in Sayeda Aisha, families that worked and lived in the neighborhood braced themselves Wednesday for the government plan to evacuate them and clear the area.
The fire started when a car fell off El-Tonsy Bridge and exploded onto the neighborhood, known for its weekly Gomaa (Friday) Market, in the early hours of June 22.
Residents and business owners told Daily News Egypt that the authorities are planning to move them to a different location, and to clear the area of the debris of their workspaces and their homes.
“The government said that there was nothing in that market, but this is a lie,” said Hanan, a resident and victim of the incident. “People had a lot of money invested in this market.”
Another victim interrupted, “The least expensive of that furniture cost at least LE 300,000.”
Despite their losses, residents and business owners said they are not asking the government for compensation.
Ayman Abdel-Hady, who owned a furniture business that was burnt down along with his home, said, “Everything is gone, but they should leave us to rebuild the area and work again so that we can make up for our losses.”
He added that the authorities have been “ignoring” them since the incident, despite the fact that “there are currently five homeless families” whose houses had burnt to the ground.
The Ministry of Interior told Daily News Egypt that they have no press statements or comments about the incident.
“Our MP took the names, but nothing’s happened. We’ve been sleeping on the streets since yesterday,” he said.
According to the residents, former MP Hassan El Tonsy took all of their names following the incident, but that MP Abdelmoneim Bekheit, the district’s current representative at the People’s Assembly, has yet to come to inspect it.
“He only lives 10 meters away,” yelled another resident.
However, Bekheit told Daily News Egypt that he had visited the area after the incident and plans to go again.
“El Gomaa Market is a slum area that has no safety measures. What happened was a catastrophe, but it was predictable,” said Bekheit.
Bekheit said that there were plans to move the Gomaa Market residents to May 15th City that were approved in 2008.
“The residents [of the market] were going to pay half the expense, but I don’t know if that will work now after the fire, because I don’t think they have a penny left,” he said.
The residents, however, were more concerned about their loans and IOUs.
One of them, Umm Mustapha, said, “We took out bank loans and now we can’t pay back the money we owe them. The banks will have us arrested.
“Each country has similar markets, and here we get foreign clients from all around the world and from the best countries in the world. Where are we supposed to go? They’re destroying people’s lives because a car fell off the bridge.”
Sources in the Gomaa Market area said that this was the fifth time a car had fallen off El-Tonsy Bridge.
Another resident, Umm Ahmad, said they had called the police at around 2:30 am on Tuesday, “but they left us to burn until five in the morning.”
People around the area said the hoses from the fire trucks that came to their aid were all ripped up in different places.
Hanan, however, said that they are not worried about where they will live, but are worried about the workspaces and business that burnt down.
“They provided people’s daily income and provided them with stability. Without that, young men and women will leave their homes and become vagabonds and thieves,” she said.
“Then the government will blame slum residents for all the problems in the country when they force people to resort to such desperate measures as stealing and living on the streets.”
