Police in Kampala has summoned two former teachers at Lubiri Secondary School in Kampala over a fire that gutted one of the school’s dormitories.
Last week on Thursday, fire believed to have been deliberately started by an arsonist brokeout at Ssekandi dormitory at 08:45 pm while learners were in for evening preps. The fire destroyed student’s property and the building to ashes.
Fred Enanga, the Uganda Police Spokesperson says investigations into the incident show that the fire was deliberately started.
“The Investigations indicate that it was arson because the fires erupted from different spots within the dormitory and not from one spot. This means somebody carefully set the fire at different spots,” Enanga has said.
He says police has summoned the two teachers because they were fired shortly before the incident. He explained that the two teachers threatened revenge because of the termination of their contracts.
Enanga says the summoned teachers who were expelled by the school administration will be questioned in connection to the fire.
This incident comes at a time when another school, Stella Maris College Nsuube in Nkokonjeru in Buikwe district over the weekend.
The fire gutted Our Lady of Fatimah dormitory despite efforts by the residents and school staff to contain the fire. Enanga says the damage was already contained by the time the police fire and rescue services team arrived.
The 2021 crime report by the Directorate of Fire and Rescue services indicates that 1,258 fire incidents were registered compared to 1,013 fires recorded in 2020. Police attributed 272 incidents to negligence and another 186 short-circuiting.
Since schools reopened in January 2022, several schools have been fire gutted in Kampala, Kyotera, Wakiso, Kamuli, and Mayuge districts with fatalities.
