Fire guts 25 stalls in Napier market in Jinja city

JINJA, UGANDA: Fire has razed down 25 stalls in Napier market in Jinja City Southern Division. The fire, which is said to have broken out around 8:00 pm on Wednesday night mainly affected the grocery and live chicken kiosks.

Eyewitnesses say that one of the walls in the market collapsed on the lockups hosting gas cylinders forcing them to burst. The leaking gas is reported to have spilled over before sparking off big flames of fire, which quickly spread to the rest of the neighbouring stalls.

Musa Bakaki, a trader in the market says that there were communication gaps and delays in alerting police, living the fire spread to other areas within the market. “It was a big blast with huge volumes of smoke concentrated within the gas cylinder shop. We had anticipated that it would be contained. However, it, later on, produced big flames of fire and we only contacted police when the fire had widely spread already,” he said.

Lawrence Ssemaganda, the Aldina cell LC1 chairperson has asked the responsible government authorities to devise means of constructing permanent structures within Napier market, which he says will limit the number of fire outbreaks.

This is the second fire in Napier market within two months. In February 2022, a fire broke out in the clothing section of the market and razed down several stalls. Police authorities then reported that the fire resulted from an electric circuit due to poor connection.

Kiira region police spokesperson James Mubi, says that none of the vendors sustained physical injuries. He says that they have deployed a team of fire experts in the market to investigate the cause of the fire comprehensively and compile a report.