A student dies in Jinja school fire

As the fire raged through the dormitory, its roof was left completely gutted as mattresses, suitcases and other properties belonging to the students were consumed by the flames.

Police firefighters arrived at about 6:30pm and started battling the fire, managing to extinguish it before it caused even more damage.

The Kiira Region Police spokesperson, James Mubi, confirmed the death of one student.

Without revealing the identity of the deceased, Mubi said the boy’s body had been taken to Jinja Regional Referral hospital mortuary.

A tweet from the Uganda Red Cross Society Pulse Live Uganda

Although the cause of this latest fire has not been established, a month ago the police Director for Fire and Rescue Services Assistant Inspector General of Police, Joseph Mugisa, revealed that the series of fires gutting schools across the country recently are a result of deliberate action, otherwise known as arson.

If Mugisa is to believed, then it is correct to say that the deaths of five children in these recent fires along with the destruction of school property were as a result of murder.

Mugisa said all the preliminary evidence points to the police’s conclusions that all the recent school fires were a result of a deliberate plan to harm and destroy.

These fires began soon after school’s nationwide were reopened on January 10 after a two-year lockdown to stop the spread of Covid-19, fires subsequently blazed through schools in Kampala, Kyotera, Wakiso, Kamuli and Mayuge districts.

Five children lost their lives when a fire broke out in New Crest Junior at Kibedi in Kawempe division in Kampala, and St Johns Nursery & Primary school in Kyotera district. Four of the five fatalities were pupils at New Crest Junior in Kampala while one fatality was a pupil at St Johns Nursery and Primary school.

Although police have not concluded its investigations into these fires yet, Mugisa says forensic evidence so far indicates that all these fires were premediated and planned beforehand.

Mugisa adds, however, that although these fires arose out of deliberate action, police have not yet found out why the gutted schools were set ablaze in the first place.

“Majority were as a result of suspected deliberate action by unknown people,” Mugisa said. “That’s what we have established. It was for unknown reasons so far, but that is what we have established,” Mugisa said.

The five pupils who died in these school fires are Tena Denge 6, Bashira Nabawesi 6, Julian Nakalanzi 6, and Hasina Nakawuki 7, who were all pupils at New Crest Junior at Kibedi while Mark Savio Serugo was the pupil who died at St Johns Nursery and Primary school.

Mugisa says that the motives and arsonists behind these fires cannot be readily established since schools across the country do not have technological means, such as CCTV cameras, which could serve up proof for the evidence the police have. However, he added, police are trying to equip schools everywhere in Uganda with methods and tactics to prevent or contain the fire outbreaks.

“There is a lot going on in the country,” the Assistant Inspector General said. “Our officers wherever they are, are moving around boarding schools doing the teaching and doing the inspection. In the first two weeks, we had a number of fires but the trend has changed. The awareness is on plugging loopholes. We are about to succeed but there is no room for complacency. The tempo must continue.”

As for the recent fires at non-scholastic establishments, Mugisa looks away from any smoking gun and reveals that police have found out that these fires were accidental, even though preventable.

He cited the fire at Vivo Energy last week and says it was caused by friction in the fuel truck tyres after moving for very long distances. The fire at Hima Cement factory, he added, resulted from metal fabrication sparks.