Fire razes down building in Naguru Barracks

By Pascal Kwesiga

A fire has razed down one of the transit halls for police officers at Naguru barracks, one of the biggest police’s facilities in the country.

According to the police public relations officer, Fred Enanga, the fire broke out in one of the ten makeshift transit halls at the barracks yesterday morning, destroying all the property of the police officers and their family members who were occupying it at the time.

But, the police said there were no casualties.

Enanga said, the makeshift halls are used by police officers in transit awaiting redeployment.

“Some police officers are recalled from duty and they wait from these halls before they are redeployed and most of them move with their families,”

“These halls are constructed with bricks and roofed with iron sheets. But the bricks are used half way and upper part of the building up to the roof is open,” he added.

The fire, Enanga said, broke out when a wife of one of the officers was cooking, but the cause of the fire has not yet been established. He explained that there was a huge explosion in the makeshift building before fire started razing it down.

“She was cooking on a charcoal stove but it (charcoal stove) does not have the capacity to cause such an exposition. The fire spread so far, implying there could have been inflammable materials,” Enanga said.

He explained the fire that could have spread to other makeshift structures was put out by the police fire fighters who arrived in a space of between 30 to 40 minutes after it broke out. The forensic department of the police, he said, was investigating the cause of the fire.

“We cannot speculate about the cause now. But what can be seen from the rabble are shoes and other household items that could not be carried out by the time the fire broke out,” Enanga added.

One policeman said although each transit hall was meant to accommodate about 30 people at a time, but some are occupied by over 80 people at a time.