BY Donald Kiirya

Fire has gutted a boy’s dormitory at the Islamic Institute Madarsa Tahfiz Ul-Quran in Bugembe town council Jinja district destroying property worth millions of money.

The 4:30pm fire occurred as students were attending their evening prayers ‘swalah’ at Bugembe.

According to Mohammed Sadiq, an eyewitness, they saw their dormitory already in flames and made an alarm that saw good Samaritans and school management come to their rescue.

“Our teachers and residents struggled to put off the fire but in vain as it kept on spreading due to the mattresses in the dormitory that kept on fueling it,” narrated Sadiq who lost all his property in the fire.

He added that fire fighters were contacted and after sometime, Police’s fire brigade vehicle arrived and put it off as other rescuers tried to save property such as suitcase and mattresses.

Sadiq said property of about 40 students of the 60 in the affected dormitory got burnt.

The South Eastern regional deputy fire officer, Moses Masaba who was in company of the Jinja district Police Commander, Jonathan Musinguzi, said it was unfortunate that the Institute management did not have the emergency lines for the fire department and instead called Police Headquarters in Kampala which contacted Jinja central police station.

Masaba said that according to information, fire started from one of the beds in the dormitory which was locked with a padlock.

The Institute’s Principal, Sheikh Ibrahim Mohammed said students who lost property were sent back home.