MUKONO —Property valued at millions of shillings was destroyed on Thursday morning after a fire razed Soft Supermarket at Wantoni in Mukono Municipality.
The fire that broke out at 4am consumed all the goods in the supermarket as Wantoni residents blamed the huge loss on the slow response from the fire department.
They noted that all goods in the establishment were reduced to ashes as efforts to fight the blaze were hampered by water shortage.
Mr Stephen Mulaali the Managing Director at the supermarket said that he received a phone call about his brother’s supermarket getting fire.
On reaching the scene, he says that he found some of the good samaritans helping to put out the fire but nothing was saved.
”I reached the place and found some people helping the Fire Bridge to put out the fire, however the water got finished from the truck before all the fire was put out.”
Mr Akamanda Ssonko the owner of the building that housed the supermarket said that the fire was caused by the fridges that were left on in the night to preserve some of the foods.
The head of police fire brigade in Mukono Mr Lucana Sande his team tried to put out the fire but “we were not able to save anything.”
“We tried to stop the fire from affecting the next businesses.” He added
The Secretary Defense Watoni Mr Moses Kato urged business owners to always switch off power before they leave to go home.
“Business owners should endeavor to switch off power from the sockets so as nothing of the sort happens again.” He said
As efforts were made to battle with the fire, police were occasionally forced to fire in the air to dissuade looters who tried to break into the supermarket.
The looters first attempted to break into the rear door, before police spotted them and fired in the air.
Police said investigations are on to establish the cause of the fire.
He added that the area will remain guarded by police, to pave way for in-depth investigations.
He said the police have collected samples that will be forwarded to government chemists to facilitate investigations.
