A huge fire broke at the “Kvadrant” market In the Sarajevo neighbourhood of Otoka on Sunday, and eight fire brigades worked to put it out. According to the director of the local company managing the market, the booths that provided workers with their only source of income were destroyed.

According to their fire reporting center, their team tried to put out the fire with fire extinguishers because only one box was burning, but the fire started to spread quickly, so the firefighters were also notified.

“We still don't know the causes. When the authorities make an announcement, we will act accordingly. For now, we have no information that anyone was injured. We are in contact with the mayor of the Municipality of Novi Grad Sarajevo, the relevant minister and the prime minister of Sarajevo Canton to find a solution to help the workers who work there as soon as possible. It's a huge shame because the boxes were full of goods. For the users, it was the only source of income from which they fed their families,” the head of the public company maintaining the market told N1.

The damage will be huge considering that the market has stands with various types of equipment, plastics and textiles.

According to the citizens who live there, gas bottles are also allegedly sold at the market. Some of the residents say that everything was preceded by the sound of an explosion, and then smaller ones followed.

N1 spoke to Fehrija, one of the workers and the owner of one of the stalls at the market.

“People barely made it out alive. Everything was burnt. People who worked for 20-25 years – everything burned down, everything is gone. People are now left on the streets, hungry and thirsty. Many of them used this to feed their families,” she told N1 in tears.