MBARARA – The administration of Mbarara Secondary School in Kakoba Division, Mbarara Municipality, has sent home about 70 students after their property was burnt to ashes in a fire that gutted a school dormitory.
The school head teacher, Mr. Geofrey Birungi, they had no choice but to send home students of S1, S2, S3, and S5 for at least a week so as to reorganize the school.
Mr Birungi said the fire which gutted Lumumba dormitory destroyed mattresses, blankets, clothes, books and the roofing.
Rwizi region police spokesperson Samson Kasasira said fire broke out around midnight on Wednesday morning in the dormitory that accommodates 76 senior one and two students. However no student was injured, he said.
Mr Kasasira said they suspect it could be act of arson since fire started from the entrance. Police are carrying out investigations.
The accident comes two weeks after the boys’ dormitory at Rwaibaare Secondary School in Kakiido Sub-county, Sheema district, caught fire on July 17 and property of 77 students, including beddings, books, pocket money and others burnt to ash.
It is alleged that the cause of fire was an electric short circuit though some alleged that it was due to wrong connections by some students who charge their phones even if when it’s illegal to have a phone in school.
Early last month, a fire gutted the boy’s dormitory at St Augustine’s College in Wakiso district, destroying students’ property worth millions.
According to teachers at the school, the fire broke out at around 8.30pm and no student was injured as they were having preps at the time.
The police fire brigade team arrived about 30 minutes later and managed to put out the fire but students books, mattresses, clothes and other personal property had already been burnt to ashes.
The incident comes hardly three months after fire gutted Kamaanya Primary School in Bunamwaya on May 28. It’s not yet clear what caused the fire but it was fortunately contained on time. On the same day, fire also gutted a Makerere University Business School (MUBS) students’ hostel leading to the destruction of property with millions.
In the same month, three students sustained injuries as they were escaping a fire that gutted Mary Stuart Hall, a female students’ residence at Makerere University.
