Fire burns shops in Sembabule

Property worth millions of shillings has been destroyed in a fire that burnt shops in Sembabule District Thursday.

The fire whose cause is yet to be confirmed destroyed a building that houses three shops dealing in essential commodities such as sugar, cooking oil rice and mattresses, among others.

Locals claimed the fire was caused by a short circuit in one of the shops before spreading to other parts of the building.

“We were at our boda boda stage when we heard an alarm made by one of the people at the burnt building them put out the fire but we could not do much since the fire was too much” he added.

"We tried to help but we were overwhelmed by the fire,” said one of the first responders when the fire started.

The officer in charge of Sembabule District police station, Mr Lukka Mbusa said detectives are yet to confirm the cause of the fire.

He said that police failed to save the property but they managed to control the fire from spreading to other shops and stopped those that attempted to steal the property.

 "We are investigating allegations that the fire could have been as a result of a short circuit which is expected to have been caused an illegal connection in one of the shops," he said.