Police report shows 18 school fires, mostly occurred in Kampala

By Ben Musanje

14^th March 2022

Police have released a preliminary report indicating at total of 18 fire outbreaks in schools that occurred in the country since the full reopening on January 10 this year.

Addressing the journalists at Naguru, AIGP Joseph Mugisa, the Police Director of Fire and Rescue Services says that these fires have claimed at least seven lives of learners and the majority of these incidents have occurred in private boarding schools except the two government learning institutions.

Mugisa says that they established that 6 of these 18 schools fires were as a result of deliberate burning on either dormitories or stores and more than 75% of those incidents have occurred when students are out of the dormitories for dinner or preps.

Mugisa further shows that several suspects have been arrested in relation to the school fires including two people that were allegedly behind fires at the Good Times Infant Primary School Kawaala and the majorities have happened in Kampala Metropolitan.

Mugisa however appealed to the school managements to formulate mechanisms of solving conflicts to avoid fire outbreaks since most of the fires are due to unsolved grievances.