Traders operating in Kampala trading center located in Kacenche parish, Nayikishenyi sub county, Rukungiri district are counting losses after fire-razed their wooden lockups.
The incident occurred on Friday afternoon.
Baker Mwesigye, one of the traders says that while they were busy operating normally, they saw fire gutting one of the wooden lockups. Mweisigye says that the fire extended to other lockups and razed all of them including merchandise inside.
He said efforts to put-off the fire quickly by pouring water using basins and jerrycans did not help. Mwesigye said that due to the long distance from Rukungiri town to Nyakishenyi, the Police fire brigade did not turn up to help.
Maurine Tuheirwe, another affected trader says that the fire destroyed merchandise worth about 100 million shillings. She says that even as traders, they don’t know the exact cause of the fire.
Elly Maate, the Police spokesperson for the Kigezi region confirmed the incident saying that they have registered 30 wooden lockups to have been destroyed completely by the fire.
Maate says that despite the fire burning all the merchandise, all people managed to escape without injuries. He said that investigations to find out the exact cause of the fire are ongoing.
The case is registered at Nyakishenyi Police station under file number SD 09/13/01/2023.
This is the first incident in Nyakishenyi sub-county where fire guts a market, and burn lockups and merchandise.