Key takeaways
- About 20 makeshift trading structures were gutted at Kamwala Trading Area in Lusaka on the night of 18 August; no injuries have been reported.
- Police say the blaze broke out around 20:40 hours behind Downtown Shopping Mall along the railway line, and the Lusaka City Council Fire Brigade extinguished it.
- Preliminary investigations point to a brazier left burning at a makeshift restaurant; an inquiry file has been opened and the damage has not yet been costed.
- Kamwala has burned before: about 50 stalls went up in 2008, and roughly 120 more in a series of blazes in 2017.
- With insurance rare among makeshift traders, restocking will fall on savings and supplier goodwill; affected traders should document their losses now.
About twenty makeshift trading structures at Kamwala Trading Area in Lusaka were gutted on the night of 18 August, the Zambia Police Service has said. The fire broke out around 20:40 hours behind Downtown Shopping Mall, along the railway line. Officers from Kabwata Police Station rushed to the scene after receiving a report and found several makeshift trading structures already gutted.
The Lusaka City Council Fire Brigade extinguished the blaze. No injuries have been reported, and police say the full extent of the damage is yet to be established. An inquiry file has been opened, with investigations ongoing to determine the exact circumstances.
In a press statement issued by Police Public Relations Officer Godfrey Chilabi, preliminary investigations suggest the fire may have originated from a brazier left burning at a makeshift restaurant. Police have urged traders operating from temporary structures to exercise extreme caution when using braziers and to ensure all sources of fire are completely extinguished before leaving their premises.
Kamwala has burned before
This is not the trading area’s first fire, and the record explains why Tuesday night’s response was quick even if the outcome was not. In April 2008, about 50 Kamwala market stalls burned to rubble in a blaze attributed at the time to a suspected electrical fault, destroying goods worth millions of kwacha. Between April and June 2017, a series of fires swept the same area and destroyed an estimated 120 stalls, part of a wave of blazes across Zambian markets and businesses that authorities then treated as suspected arson.
The wider city record is no better. The July 2017 Lusaka City Market fire, one of the largest in the capital’s recent memory, led to a dozen arrests and a season of sabotage allegations. The common thread across these episodes is structural: rows of timber, cardboard and plastic sheeting built close together, open cooking flames inside them, no fire breaks between stalls, and access lanes too narrow for a fire engine to reach the burning rows quickly.
Fire is also how much of the city’s street food economy cooks. Our feature on the lunchtime trade at Longacres Market set out how braziers underpin thousands of livelihoods in Lusaka, which is exactly why the police advice about extinguishing them matters commercially and not only as a safety slogan.
What the traders are actually losing
Police have not put a kwacha figure on the damage, and the full extent is still being established. For traders in makeshift structures, the stock usually is the business: bales of second-hand clothing in a trading area known for its salaula trade, hardware, prepared food and the day’s cash float. Kamwala’s place in Lusaka’s second-hand clothing economy means some of the lost stock is imported inventory bought at kwacha prices that have since moved.
Insurance is rare in this tier of the market. A single fire therefore resets twenty micro-businesses to zero at once, and stock bought on credit becomes a debt that still has to be settled with the supplier even though the goods no longer exist.
What affected traders should do now
Record everything. Photograph what is left, list the stock lost and pull together supplier invoices and delivery notes. Even where no insurance exists, documentation is the basis for any relief scheme that follows, as one did after the 2017 market fires, and for renegotiating payment terms with suppliers who will otherwise treat the loss as a default.
Engage the inquiry file. Kabwata police are compiling the record through which cause and any liability will be settled. Traders who saw the early stages of the fire should give statements; the file is also the document a council or government relief process will refer back to.
Fix the fire discipline before rebuilding. The police advice is to fully extinguish braziers before leaving. Market committees can go further: no open flames after closing hours, cleared aisles so engines can reach the rows, and sand or water points staged along the busiest stretches.
What to watch
The council’s next move. The railway-line strip behind Downtown Mall is the kind of dense temporary settlement Lusaka has debated regularising for years. Fire breaks, water points and access roads are the difference between a contained blaze and a repeat of 2017.
Relief, if any. Help for fire victims has historically followed political attention. This fire landed in the week a new government is being formed, which can either speed assistance or bury it. Market committees keeping a public register of affected traders will be better placed either way.
Insurance and credit. Episodes like this are the raw material for micro-insurance and inventory finance products aimed at market traders. Until those exist, the SME credit gap we have documented means few of the affected businesses will rebuild with formal credit. Suppliers and bulk buyers who depend on Kamwala traders can keep visibility through our business directory and events page.
The bottom line
Twenty structures is a small number in a city and a large number in a single row of stalls. The inquiry file will settle the cause. The harder question is the one Kamwala has faced since 2008: whether the trading area gets rebuilt with the same materials and the same risks, or to a standard that survives the next unattended brazier.
Related coverage
- Where Lusaka Does Lunch: The Business of Fire, Food and Fast Turnover at Longacres Market
- Salaula: The Economics of Zambia’s Second-Hand Clothing Trade
- The SME Credit Gap: Why Zambian Small Businesses Still Can’t Borrow Affordably
WARNING! All rights reserved. This material and all other digital content on this website may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed, in whole or in part, without the prior express permission of The Zambian Economist. Where permission is granted, the content must be clearly credited to “The Zambian Economist,” with “www.zambianeconomist.com” prominently displayed.
WhatsApp: +260775574228 | Email: info@zambianeconomist.com
© 2026 The Zambian Economist.
