A fire incident at Salama boarding school for the blind has claimed the lives of 11 people, mostly children in the early hours of Tuesday (today).
The incident was confirmed by Uganda Police force via a tweet on Twitter.
The force wrote; “The cause of the fire is currently unknown but so far 11 deaths as a result of the fire have been confirmed while six are in critical conditions and admitted (to hospital).”
The disaster occurred at about 1 am (2200 GMT Monday) at the Salama School for the Blind in the Mukono district, East of the Kampala, the Nation’s capital.
Police said an investigation had been launched into the cause of the inferno and more details would be released later.
The Inter Affairs Minister, General Kahinda Otafiire, who spoke with newsmen said; “Most of the dead are children at the school and our sympathies go to the parents.”
“As a government, we shall go to the root cause of the fire and if there are any culprits they will be apprehended and the law will take its course.”
The school’s headmaster Francis Kirube, who is also blind, told newsmen that the flames swept through the dormitory as the pupils slept.
He said; “One of our dormitories caught fire and burnt at around midnight. The matron made an alarm."
"This was one of the dormitories for the young girls and it caught and burned down and, very unfortunately, 11 girls, small girls, perished."
The School’s administrator, Kinubi,on his part lamented the lack of safety equipment.
He said; “I have to admit that we do not have systems like fire extinguishers because we have always been appealing to government to provide us with some of these gadgets, but in vain.”