In Youssef Naguib Street, at the Al-Ataba market in central Cairo, security barriers supported by civil defense teams separate the street from the bustling noise and crowds that plague the area. This measure is taken to prevent pedestrians and vendors from passing through until the cooling operations for the fire that broke out in one of the old buildings on the 26th of last month are completed. The flames spread to some of the goods storage belonging to shop and office owners in the Al-Ataba market.

Zawia3 visited the area where the incident occurred, which resulted in the complete collapse of the three-story building, over 100 years old—its deterioration was exacerbated by its internal wooden pillars, contributing to the spread of the fire that was caused by an electrical short circuit.

At the end of last month, two devastating fires erupted in the Al-Ataba market; one in Haret El-Yahoud in the Al-Gamaliya district, west of Cairo, and the other in El-Rowei’i, an old street separating the districts of Khedival and Fatimid Cairo. The two incidents resulted in the deaths of five people and injuries to about ten others. These were not the first incidents of their kind; the area suffers from frequent fires due to the lack of safety and professional security measures in both shops and storage facilities.

At the end of last month, Ibrahim Saber, the Governor of Cairo, decided to form an engineering committee to inspect the two buildings where fires broke out on Al-Gohary Street in Al-Mosky district and El-Rowei’i, as well as the adjacent buildings, to assess the extent of the damage from the incident. The governor of Cairo monitored the civil defense efforts to control the fire and cooling operations.

The volume of trade in Al-Ataba market exceeds 100 billion Egyptian pounds, according to traders and shop owners in the area.

Frequent Fires

Ziad, a 15-year-old boy, carries three small boxes of merchandise, revealing the glass cups he sells as he navigates through the streets of Al-Ataba market. With one hand holding a sample of the goods, he raises his voice above the noisy surroundings to promote his wares.

Ziad recounts what he saw on the night of the fire at the “Ali Bra’i” building on Youssef Naguib Street. He says it started around 10 PM after the shops had closed, as per the Cabinet’s decision in June to close shops early, and it lasted about 24 hours with fire trucks and warehouse owners trying to extinguish the fire.

He mentions that the building that burned down housed many warehouses used by traders to store their goods. Each floor of the building had about 20 storage rooms filled with clothes and shoes, which contributed to the rapid spread of the fire. The fire was caused by a small boiler used to heat water.

Ziad adds that he has been working in the market during his summer break for two years to help support his family by selling cups to passersby and keeping part of the profit for himself after paying the goods’ owner. He says, “Fires often occur in the market, especially in the warehouses, due to the large quantities of goods stored there and the high temperatures that increase the likelihood of fires.”

At the end of last month, Labor Minister Mohamed Gabran met with a delegation from the Cairo Chamber of Commerce, along with some traders and shop owners in Al-Ataba and Al-Mosky, and announced the launch of an initiative to address the causes of fires in cooperation with the executive agencies and relevant authorities. A committee will be formed, consisting of representatives from the Occupational Safety and Health Department at the Ministry of Labor, the Ministry of Electricity, the Cairo Chamber of Commerce, the Federation of Egyptian Industries, and the General Union of Workers in Trade, to inspect buildings at risk of fire, examine shops in those areas, and repair and maintain electrical cables to prevent fires, ensuring the safety of lives and property. They will also provide awareness programs for workers and involve senior traders from Al-Mosky and Al-Ataba in the initiative.

The minister called for the Higher Advisory Council for Occupational Safety and Health to convene, as it is responsible under the Labor Law No. 12 of 2003 for setting general policies in these fields and proposing necessary measures for their implementation, especially coordinating efforts and organizing cooperation among related bodies in the areas of legislation, information, research, studies, training, media, and implementing safety and health programs to secure the work environment.

Lack of Information

Ayman El-Ashry, Chairman of the Cairo Chamber of Commerce and head of El-Ashry Steel Group, told Zawia3 that the meeting with the labor minister at the end of last month agreed on compensating those affected by recent incidents and providing them with the necessary assistance. The meeting also agreed on providing the necessary awareness tools for these areas to inform them about how to handle accidents and fires.

He explained that the chamber held several continuous meetings with shop owners and traders in the Al-Ataba market over the past few days, attributing the frequent fires in these areas to overcrowding and severe congestion, as well as the lack of organizational means to manage such historical popular markets.

The Chairman of the Cairo Chamber of Commerce attributed the failure to implement many of the proposed plans in these areas to the lack of sufficient awareness among shop owners in these areas, which has hindered development plans on many occasions. He noted that the process of legalizing these areas is currently being studied in cooperation with the Ministry of Labor in the coming period.

Regarding the proposal to relocate vendors from this area to other locations, he confirmed that this option is determined by the ministry and the relevant authorities, separate from the chamber, whose role is limited to communication and attempting to regulate their situation during the next phase. He added that the chamber does not have data on the number of shops and warehouses in this area, and it is supposed to work on inventorying and collecting this data in the coming period.

Historic Market

The importance of Al-Ataba market lies in the fact that it was the first civilized market in Khedival Cairo; it was built in 1886 and completed in 1892. Inside, it consists of two main streets running through the building, topped by a conical metal roof with a lantern for lighting. Each street in the market was covered by a gabled metal roof supported by metal pillars resting on stone walls. The two main streets branched into 12 alleys, each covered by a domed roof with semi-circular arched windows for morning lighting and ventilation of the market. The market has 220 shops, along with rooms designated for commissions and administration.

Hamada Kamel, the owner of a clothing store located in Al-Ataba Square, said the building where the fire occurred is over 100 years old; it is a historic building from the original planning of Al-Ataba Square during the reign of Khedive Ismail. The building consists of three floors and occupies a large area of land. Its construction relies mainly on wood, which contributed to the rapid spread of the fire. He added that the cause of the fire was an electrical short circuit, as is often the case with the frequent fires in the market. He said he has been working in the market for more than 25 years and has witnessed many incidents that have resulted in the loss of many lives and millions of pounds.

Kamel owns several clothing warehouses in the building, which support his wholesale business. He added that there was a fatality in the fire; a trader received a phone call informing him that the market was on fire. He rushed to his merchandise and, upon seeing the fire, tried to enter to save his goods but lost consciousness due to the thick smoke and died upon arrival at the hospital from severe respiratory distress.

Kamel confirmed that there are no safety measures in the warehouses or the required civil defense facilities in each building, which causes significant disasters when an accident occurs. He attributed the lack of these factors to the culture of the shop owners and traders and their poor understanding of the importance of these issues.

Another clothing shop owner in Al-Ataba Square, who preferred not to be named, said that the market is controlled by several large families known as traders, who have come from Asyut Governorate for decades. He added that the repeated incidents have not changed the behavior and dealings of these traders with their goods and warehouses alike. He noted that the loss suffered by the traders whose goods were burned in the last fire is about five million pounds.

Development Attempts

In February 2018, the Ministry of Culture, represented by the Supreme Council of Culture, in coordination with the Cairo Governorate, announced a roadmap to rescue and revive historical markets suffering from neglect and chaos, as part of the state’s strategy to preserve architectural heritage. A series of extensive dialogue sessions were held to gather experts’ and specialists’ opinions and develop a plan to upgrade old traditional markets.

During the sessions, Dalila Kerdany, a professor at the Faculty of Engineering at Cairo University and head of the Architecture Committee at the Supreme Council of Culture, emphasized the importance of historical markets and their impact on the urban fabric, marking a significant development stage in the cities’ history at the beginning of modernity. She proposed several elements for the sustainable preservation of markets, including creating an independent administrative body to manage the markets, involving traders in shaping the market’s future, and finding central ideas and means to organize the market’s relationship with its urban surroundings. She also suggested rehabilitating the architectural space and ensuring security requirements.

In November 2020, the Egyptian Cabinet approved the assignment of the Gamalon building at 7 El-Torgoman Street to the Arab Contractors Company (according to the sale and purchase regulations of the Egyptian Endowments Authority) to relocate all the occupants in the Al-Ataba market triangle area as a first stage to start developing the market. After the fire that broke out in Al-Ataba market in June 2019, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi instructed the government to develop and restore the area’s historic facade. He ordered that the external historical appearance of the market be preserved, and the heritage gates be maintained, while equipping it with the necessary precautions to prevent such incidents from recurring.

Mohamed Hosni, a bag vendor displaying his goods on a sidewalk in El-Rowei’i Street in Al-Ataba Square, said that the number of traders who stored their goods in the building consumed by the flames exceeds 20, and they have suffered significant losses due to this horrific incident that devoured their capital. He mentioned that they all received a phone call on Thursday evening informing them that the market was on fire. They rushed to their businesses to see them burn before their eyes. Mustafa Abu Zeid (the trader who died) threw himself into the building in an attempt to save his goods, but the thick smoke caused severe respiratory distress, and he lost consciousness, dying upon arrival at the hospital.

Hosni said he has been working in the market for nearly ten years and has witnessed many fires, which always happen in the same way, with the primary cause being an electrical short circuit. He denied the presence of safety measures in shops, warehouses, or wholesale offices, noting that the warehouses do not have workers but are only used for moving goods in and out, often leading to severe overcrowding. This lack of space makes it impossible to have safety areas, so when an accident occurs, the damage and losses are extensive, affecting neighboring areas as well.

Magdy El-Raheb, President of the Association for the Preservation of Egyptian Heritage, emphasized in an interview with us the importance of these historical areas, which suffer significant damage due to the ignorance of the local authorities responsible for these places about their importance and historical value. He noted that these authorities treat them as ordinary markets, so there must be attention given to these areas, which could become one of the most important sources of tourism income for the state if properly managed to highlight their historical significance as one of the largest open-air market museums for tourists.

El-Raheb added that, in addition to the neglect and repeated incidents and fires, these areas are also facing the recent threat of random demolition of many historical buildings that are hundreds of years old. He pointed out that the primary cause of most of the fires in these areas is electrical short circuits due to shop and warehouse owners increasing the electrical capacity haphazardly without consulting the relevant authorities or engineers. At the same time, the electrical capacity in these historical areas has not been upgraded for many years, carrying the potential for significant disasters in the entire historical area.

The President of the Association for the Preservation of Egyptian Heritage emphasized the urgent need for responsible and consulting bodies to quickly rescue these historical buildings and preserve the historical heritage in this area before it loses its identity due to the repeated incidents and the random distortion carried out by its inhabitants. He explained that since 2014, there has been a proposal to relocate traders from Al-Ataba market to an alternative area to preserve the area’s cultural heritage. He cited the example of relocating vegetable traders from Rod El-Farag in Shubra to the Obour Market, which, according to him, represented a cultural and economic leap for all parties. He also emphasized the need to raise awareness of the importance of the area and to develop plans for development that suit the area’s population structure on the one hand, while preserving the historical value of the area and developing it appropriately on the other hand.

Amid the neglect of archaeological areas across Egypt, the bleeding losses resulting from the lack of organization that the civilized market suffers from have not ceased; this market once rivaled European markets in terms of organization and civilized appearance when it was established nearly 200 years ago.