JINJA – Two boys’ dormitories in two different schools Wairaka College and Hope community school were razed by afire on Friday, May 31.
For Hope community school, eyewitnesses say, the fire started during the day while Wairaka College they say it started at around 7:00 as students were in for Preps.
According to reports from reliable sources, no student was harmed through the fires destroyed a lot of student property.
The two schools are in a neighborhood of about 2.5km in Wairaka village Kakira Town council in Jinja District.
The cause of the fire is yet to be established and details of this story will be brought in our consequent updates.
At the Wairaka College according to a teacher who declined to be named explained that it started shortly after 7.00pm as students were in classes for preps.
Salim Kagoda, a student, also corroborating the same event-narrated that he had gone out for a short-call when he spotted smoke in the direction of their dormitory.
“I screamed fire! And this drew the attention of numerous other students. However, it was too late to save anything as we were stopped by teachers from accessing the burning dormitory,” Kagoda said.
By the time the combined force of Jinja Police fire brigade and Kakira Sugar Works Ltd contained the flames, of Elgon dormitory at Wairaka College in Jinja.
Hilda Namutosi, the school headmistress suggested that an electric short-circuit could have sparked off the fire.
“These are very old buildings constructed over 50 years ago. The wiring has equally out-lived its span hence anything can go amiss to spark off an inferno,” Namutosi argued.
She said the affected students could be sent home on Saturday to pick up more property as their mattresses, beddings and other essentials had got burnt.
Eric Sakwa, the Jinja Resident District Commissioner and head of the local security committee expressed concern over the fire saying police had started investigations to establish exactly what happened.
