Mother, son die in Masaka City apartment fire

A 33-year-old mother and her five-year-old son have died after fire broke out in their rented apartment in Masaka City.

Bushirah Zaina Baguwemu and her son, Muhammad Magezi Junior died Saturday after fire broke out in their apartment on a four-storied building located along Elgin, Bata Cell in Masaka City.

Police said her husband, Mr Muhammad Magezi Senior and their 14-year-old daughter who were also in the apartment by the time of the fire survived.

Mr Magezi survived with injuries while their daughter was unhurt.

One of the victims’ neighbors, Ms Sarah Nalugo said they heard noises coming from the victims’ apartment at around 6am before they saw smoke emanating from the windows.

“We heard the child crying and when we got out, we saw smoke coming out and we also started running away fearing that the whole building could catch fire,” she said.

She revealed that Ms Baguwemu returned last December from Saudi Arabia where she was working and that she had just joined Magezi in their rented apartment.

“The fire brigade took about an hour to arrive. Had they responded on time, may be they could have saved their lives,” she added.

However, Mr Innocent Mubangiz, the Masaka District Criminal Intelligence Officer, said the police fire brigade responded to the incident as soon as they were notified but they arrived when the victims were already dead. Property inside the affected rooms were all burnt to ashes.

“By the time our firefighting team responded to put out the fire, two people were already dead and their bodies have been taken to Masaka Regional Referral Hospital mortuary for postmortem as investigations into the cause of the inferno commence,” he said.

The Southern Regional Police Spokesperson, Mr Muhammad Nsubuga, said they had asked a fire expert from Umeme, the national power distributor, to investigate and establish whether the inferno was as a result of a short- circuit before they can make any conclusions.

This is the third fire incident to be recorded on the same street in just one year.

On February 23 last year, fire gutted two shops on Horbert Street, destroying property worth millions of shillings. On February 3 this year, one person only identified Musirwa, 25, died in a fire that gutted a building adjacent to Buddu Guest house along the same street .The burnt building was housing over 20 tenants and fire destroyed four of the rented rooms. The fire also destroyed household items worth millions of money. In this particular incident, the fire reportedly started from an unattended charcoal stove in one of the rooms.