Nakasero SS student caught lighting mattress to start dorm fire

Police say a Senior Three student at Nakasero Secondary School deliberately set fire to a mattress in a girls’ dormitory last month.

Police spokesperson Kituuma Rusoke said investigators reached the conclusion after reviewing CCTV footage from the school following the September 28, 2026 fire.

“On September 28th, we had a fire at Nakasero Secondary School. Investigators received CCTV footage and went through it. They discovered that a Senior 3 student set a mattress on fire,” Rusoke said.

“The investigations found that she even locked the matron up. It was later found that she bought a matchbox purposefully to carry out this act,” he said.

Rusoke said police later took the student to court.

The fire gutted a girls’ dormitory at the school and directly affected 74 Senior Four students.

Authorities said no lives were lost because the students had already left the dormitory for class when the fire broke out.

Responders from the Uganda Red Cross Society who rushed to the school, carried out a rapid assessment at the school to establish the scale of the damage and the immediate needs of the affected students.

Three students fainted due to shock and received first aid.

The Red Cross also provided psychological first aid to affected learners.

The assessment identified mattresses, blankets, mosquito nets, hygiene supplies and continued psychosocial support among the most urgent needs.

The humanitarian agency said many other students were indirectly affected by the incident.