When the fire first broke out in the two main warehouses of the former Dinamo Factory market in Tirana on January 8, Alma Subashi did not think the flames would reach her business.
"I can't get your warehouse" they had told her, but one of the fire engines that arrived first on the scene had water blocked while the other had no fuel. As a result of the delays in intervention, Subashi says there was damage and loss of goods worth around 800 thousand euros from the warehouse, a business owned by her parents.
"We had about eight containers of goods! The irony of fate was that I had received supplies on the 6th and the fire happened two days later," she tells Citizens.
When I asked her if there was currently any trader in the market who had suffered such a high loss in value, she told me about an acquaintance who, due to his severe psychological state, as a result of the colossal loss, "He no longer leaves the house and doesn't talk to anyone".
Waiting for compensation
Subashi explains that in the absence of full compensation, she expects the state to at least provide them with a refund of the value added tax (VAT) they paid at customs during the transit of the containers, given that the goods were burned and practically never sold.
"We should have collected the VAT we paid from the consumer when we sold it," she explains.
To meet the damaged businesses, you have to walk along the end of the market, as about 76 damaged businesses have taken shelter in several temporary sections of the market.
“They brought us here to the pit,” says Ramadan Dollomani, another injured trader.
He, like Subashi, says that he has submitted the balance sheets of the products that were burned to the tax office through the economist and hopes at least for a refund of the VAT.
The traders have also tried to communicate with the Prime Minister's Office, submitting a petition to the offices of this institution, but so far none of them have any information on when and how they will be compensated.
The space inside the market houses the offices of the company “Dinamo”, a joint-stock company that has been managing all commercial entities since 1995. The market was founded that year, after the privatization of the former factory, mainly by families whose lands were returned.
"Dinamo sh.a" is managed as a company by about 120 partners, where the main quotas are run by the Hysa, Gjnali, Fortuzi, Çela families, etc. Meanwhile, the state holds 13% of the quotas through the Ministry of Finance and Economy.
Outside the building where the shareholders work, one of them tells us that they want to know what political stance the media outlet that is interviewing them has, so they know whether they should respond or not.
"We are still waiting for the prosecution to determine whether the cause of the fire was a deliberate human factor or an accidental incident," one of them commented, not wanting to be identified by name.
He concluded that the state is obliged to "return five lek to the merchants", pasi “they have been paying money all their lives,” but when asked whether he and other shareholders feel responsible for the market structure and environment, he refused to answer.
"When risk is uncontrollable, it is not covered by insurance"
According to insurance experts, the fire at the former Dinamo Factory is an example of why not every business can be insured immediately. The lack of fire partitions, protective systems and safe installations, along with poor infrastructure, are some of the reasons why insurance companies do not cover such structures.
"Insurance companies do not reject people or businesses. If measures are not taken, the risk is uncontrollable and, in insurance parlance, uninsurable," analyzes for Citizens Mimoza Hajdarmataj, Secretary General, Insurers Association of Albania.
Hajdarmataj as an example of success that has met the standards and has also been taken over by insurance companies is the agricultural market on the Tirana-Durres highway.
She emphasizes that a joint reflection of structures is necessary to establish clear security rules.
“The insurance market is ready to cooperate with municipalities and other relevant authorities to make these structures insurable,” Hajdarmataj concludes.
Read also:
Fire at former Dinamo Factory destroys around 50 businesses
He completed his master's studies in the department of Journalism and Communication Sciences at the University of Tirana. She has been reporting for more than four years in Citizens.al on issues of culture, urban development, feminism, etc. She is also a contributor to other local and foreign online media, and has worked in the editing of various materials. She is the author of the podcast "Pezull" on Citizens.al and is engaged as a coordinator of projects related to the empowerment of young journalists and migration issues.
One Response