IGANGA, UGANDA: Student property worth millions of shillings was left burnt to ashes after fire gutted the alternative boys’ dormitory at Iganga high school, weeks after another outbreak. The fire whose cause has not yet been established happened on the morning of Monday July 25.
The school which is found in the northern division has faced two fire outbreaks in a period of less than six weeks. Previously on June 19, this year, one of the boys dormitories caught fire and students’ property worth millions was reduced to ashes.
The school management resolved to house the victims in an alternative structure which was initially being used as a classroom. Unfortunately on Monday morning at around 6:00am, fire gutted the alternative structure and students’ property perished in the morning fire.
The chairperson PTA of the school, Hajji Walubi Abubakar says that he received repeated calls from school staff informing him about the unfortunate incident.
“I was having subuhi prayer when I got repeated calls and realized later that the school headteacher and chief cook were the ones trying to inform me about the incident. It’s very unfortunate that the students we transferred from the previous dormitory which was affected last time are again the victims of this fire,” Hajji Walubi said.
Hajji Walubi confirmed that no student perished or got injury as a result of fire since they were out for morning preps. However, he said that students lost their property in the fire.
“I called police who controlled fire from spreading to the nearby classrooms and sickbay. We thank God that no death or injury was registered though students lost their newly replaced property like mattresses, boxes, clothes, books plus the beds which were recently repaired,” Hajji Walubi said before adding that the cause of fire was yet to be established by police who were at scene by press time.
He urged parents of the affected students to be calm and called on the said parents to check on their children and or pick them citing that the school currently has nowhere to house the affected students.
A section of parents who responded after hearing about the matter have condemned the school leadership for what they termed as negligence by the school to give reasonable security to the school.
Waiswa Kaziba, who educates three children at the school said that “the school has enough security with a fence but we’re wondering what is causing these fire incidents. We bring our children hoping that we’re bringing them in a good place but it’s beating our understanding after these repeated fire incidents.”
The incident shocked many people and local leaders who responded swiftly to see what had transpired.
The woman member of parliament Iganga district, Kauma Sauda Alibaawo was shocked with fire outbreak with in a period of less than 2 months and called upon police to ascertain the cause of fire. She encouraged parents to stay united with the school at this moment when the term is coming to an end.
“We were shocked with the second fire catching the dormitory with in a period of less than 2 months and we called upon police to ascertain the cause of fire. We encourage parents to stay united with the school at this moment when the term is coming to an end,” Hon Kauma said.
Hon Kauma confirmed that they wrote to office of the prime minister for support after the first fire outbreak and they will continue following up and notifying them about the second fire.
The chairperson Iganga Northern Division where the school is located, Mr Kataba Muhammad condemned the act saying that this seems to be a planned incident either with internal or external forces.
“I want to condemn this act because Iganga High is a school we trust almost in the whole country according to their service, so I therefore condemn the people doing this either they are inside school or outside that they should be lenient to our children and school,” Kataba said before saying that police was on ground to ascertain the cause of repeated fire outbreaks at the school.
However, Daily Express has learnt that this is the third time this school is facing fire incidents. A teacher who preferred anonymity so as to speak freely says that days after the first fire, some perpetrators entered one of the classrooms on the last floor of the school flat, collected students’ book and set them ablaze but they managed to rescue the situation before any regrettable damage.
Meanwhile, police has started investigations into the incident.
Busoga East Police mouthpiece SP Diana Nandawula said that police has commenced with investigation into the cause of fire which reportedly broke out at around 6:00am and brought down a dormitory which was sheltering 67 students.
“Investigations have commenced into the fire which caught the boys’ dormitory at Iganga high school, the structure has been housing 67 students from S.1 and S.3. We managed to swung into action with our fire brigade and prevented the fire from spreading to other rooms on the block,” SP Nandawula said.
Nandawula says that the cause of this fire is still unascertained but she confirmed that the previous dormitory fire according to police report points out electricity as it’s cause.
“The fire allegedly started at around 6am but the cause of this fire is still not known, but we have started investigations into this matter. However, the investigations about the previous fire says that it originated from electricity,” Nandawula said.
The school was today starting end of term exams but we learnt that the exams were postponed.
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