Fire breaks out at Arua Park

By Nicholas Kajoba

KAMPALA - Police firefighters battled and put out a fire that broke out at Super Complex at Arua Park on Wednesday.

Despite their efforts, the early morning fire took its toll on some shops on the building, leaving some merchandise burnt. Heavy smoke billowed out from the building.

It started from one of the shops dealing in agricultural chemicals, a witness said.

At the time of the fire, which witnesses said started at around 6.30am local time (EAT), most business people were opening their shops to start the day’s operations.

A commotion shortly afterwards had many of them scampering off for safety as others made daring attempts to salvage their goods.

Alan Mukasa who was at the scene, heard a loud sound and immediately thought a bomb had gone off in the building.

“I saw smoke coming out of the complex. Some of us took off, but we came back later to see when police fire brigade men came and started to extinguish the fire,” he said.

The police fire brigade got to the scene and extinguished the fire.

“We managed to contain the fire in time and not too much damaged has been caused. Our officers reported at the scene five minutes after the first call was made,” a Police officer at the scene said.

With investigations into the cause of the fire underway, police said it deployed at the scene to avert any potential looting by the people around the building.