Fire guts Kasese cotton facility
Fire fighters try to put out fire at the cotton store on Friday. All the cotton was burnt. Photo by Enid Ninsiima
A fire broke out inside a cotton store in Kasese District, piling more woes in the sector already faced with the demand by farmers to increase cotton prices.
The incident, which occurred on Friday, destroyed at least 4,000 tonnes of cotton awaiting transportation to the ginnery.
The store, located in Industrial Area, on Kasese-Mbarara highway, is owned by Bushenyi Cotton Ginnery based in Rubirizi District.
The manager of the store, only identified as Patel, said: “We haven’t established the cause of the fire, you can see my cotton is all burnt, we were here in the morning loading lorries to Kyambura but all of a sudden we saw smoke only to see the whole store was on fire.”
Kasese Cobalt Company Limited fire brigade, which was called an hour after the incident, was overwhelmed and another brigade from Hima Cement factory, which arrived at midday, also failed to put out the fire.
Police fire brigade was then called from Fort Portal which arrived at 2pm to reinforce the team on ground.
Earlier efforts by residents to fight the fire using water were futile.
The assistant officer in-charge of criminal investigations, Mr Andrew Salhube, said he is yet to establish the cause of the fire.
Mr Yofesi Masereka, a cotton dealer, said police in the district should be equipped with fire fighting machines so that incase fire breaks out some property can be rescued.
A kilogramme of cotton goes for between Shs1,200 and Shs1,300 but the farmers want the price to be Shs3,000 like the previous years.
