Fire consumes popular street market near Haiti’s capital

A vendor salvages items from the burned ruins of the Shada Market in the Petion-ville area of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Thursday, May 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph) (Odelyn Joseph, Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

PETIONVILLE, Haiti – A large fire has torn through a street market in Haiti and consumed thousands of dollars’ worth of goods as vendors wailed over their losses.

Vendors began arriving before sunrise Thursday to try and quell the flames. They threw bucketsful of sand on blazing zinc roofs before firefighters arrived.

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The market is known as Shada and is located in Petionville, next to the capital of Port-au-Prince.

It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the fire.

It occurred as poverty and hunger across Haiti deepens amid growing political instability and gang violence.


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