Tabari Place

Port Moresby's ‘ghost town’

Since the fire brought the line of shops to ashes, Boroko has been very hard to look at in the past week.

Opportunists were still rummaging through the ashes without police presence in the area.

Loop PNG visited Tabari Place and Boroko Craft Market to interview commuters this weekend and found out that since the fire, the area has become more and more unsafe.

Commuters who frequent Boroko because of their jobs, access to shopping centres and public services, like the bank and post office, said the area has become an eyesore.

Flames were completely extinguished on Thursday: Commander

This was the response from the Boroko Fire Station Commander, Superintendent Leo Ovia.

Superintendent Ovia said all fire service units in Port Moresby were called in on Thursday evening to subdue the fire and they had made sure the building was fire free before they dispersed from the scene.

He said fire service contained the fire on Thursday until the other units departed at 10pm in the night, followed by the Waigani fire trucks.

Fire devastates iconic shops at Tabari Place

The fire reignited again early this morning taking the adjoining business houses on either side of it burning it down to rubble.

Papindo Supermarket, Johnson Pharmacy and Jacobi Private Clinic the iconic faces and names of Tabari Place went up in flames this morning, making it the perfect opportunity for looters to rush in amidst the flames and take stores goods and merchandises.

Loop PNG was at the scene this morning to see looters running back and forth from the shops taking out merchandises while police fired teargas at the crowd to disperse them.