Student dies in dormitory fire

Mbale

One student died and property worth millions was destroyed on Tuesday when fire gutted a dormitory at Hamdan Girls’ High School in Mbale.

Fiona Watawa, 16, a Senior Three student, who was sick and resting at the time the fire, was burnt beyond recognition after failing to run out of Mariam Dormitory that was gutted. Burnt clothes, blankets, beds and books were scattered all over the compound.
Police Fire Brigade arrived later and extinguished the fire. Although some students said the fire started at Hadija Dormitory from where someone was cooking on a hotplate, the headmaster, Mr Musa Ssenyonga, said the fire was started by a short circuit in one of the rooms in the dormitory.

No arsonist
“This girl was sick and we had allowed her to rest after medication,” Mr Ssenyonga said. “I think she failed to run out. We are saddened by her loss and the property.” He said: “I had just moved out of the school shortly after supervising preps when I heard students shouting after the fire had broken out. Our efforts to fight the fire were however, not successful.”

Mbale District Police Commander Jacob Opolot ruled out arson but blamed the fire on short circuit due to poor wiring. This fire comes barely a year after St Paul’s College, Mbale went up in flames. Similar fires have broken out in several schools in the past with the Budo Junior School inferno that killed 20 children in 2008 as the most fatal.