Millions lost in Entebbe Market fire

By Gladys Kalibbala

Property worth millions of shillings was lost when fire gutted Kitubulu market near Entebbe town Saturday morning.
Police estimated the loss to be over sh200m.

 Among the property destroyed were about 30 lock-ups selling different items. They included mobile money agents, beauty salons, and two film halls among other items.

 Another section which was badly destroyed had charcoal stores and food stuffs.

Traders pondering teh next move. Photo by Gladys Kalibbala.

The fire which is suspected to have started at around 4am was first seen by a fisherman who was on his way to the lake.
According to him, a boda man drove off from the market at a high speed and in a few minutes the fisherman saw fire flames coming up.

Others suspected one of them to have left a charcoal stove burning although she denied it explaining they don’t sell cooked food on Sunday as customers are rare on such a day.

Police fire brigade reach at the scene immediately and put out the fire.
 

Tradesr assessing the damage caused by the fire. Photo by Gladys Kalibbala

The officer in charge of fire at Entebbe Police Apollo Okolong explained that they found when the fire had spread greatly.

“It’s unfortunate that people always notify Police when fire has already spread and by the time we reached a lot of property had been destroyed,” he explained.

He however added they managed to stop the fire from spreading and were also able to keep watch over the property which was being pulled out by the owners in order to save it.

Puzzled traders explained how they were running their businesses from loan money and appealed to government to give them a hand as many were left with nothing.