A fire broke out in Tbilisi’s Dezertirebi Market on 17 july. Four warehouses where vendors stored products were destroyed. It is unknown what caused the fire.

The fire broke out at about 15:00 and firefighters managed contain it before it spread to other area of the market. The fire damaged around 180 square metres.

One eyewitness told OC Media that there was no reason for someone to intentionally set the fire.

‘I work over there. When I saw the fire I came running down here. I don’t think it was possible that someone intentionally would start the fire. How would they benefit? I think it’s just an accident’, he said.

According to him, the fire may have been caused by faulty electrical lines in the warehouses.

However, deputy director of the market Achiko Orjonikidze told online news agency IPress that the reason for the fire could not have been electrical wires as the wires had been removed several days before.

The exact cost of the damage has not yet been established, but victims say that they know the approximate amount.

'We are talking about ₾30,000 ($12,400) of the goods stored in the warehouses', one of the victims, Giorgi Makhasashvili, told journalists.

Police have launched an investigation for criminal damage, which is punishable by up to three years in prison.

A spate of market fires

A fire broke out in a market in Poti, a town in western Georgia, on 10 July destroying up to 70 of the market’s 150 stalls. The cause of the fire is still unknown.

[Read more: Fire devastates Poti market ]

A fire broke out in Tbilisi’s Eliava Market on 1 July, taking up to 150 firefighters to contain it.

The head of Tbilisi’s Didube District, Irma Zavradashvili, told media that up to 15 shops were destroyed.

[Read on OC Media: Eliava Market ablaze in Tbilisi ]

The Bavshvta Samkaro (Children’s World) market, as well as nearby clothes and wholesale markets — an area of more than 10,000 square meters — were completely destroyed by a fire in January.

[Read on OC Media: Inferno in central Tbilisi market leaves vendors and their families in limbo ]