Police attribute Busia school fire to possible arson
By David Awori
The police have linked the Busia school fire that claimed the lives of four pupils this morning to possible arson.
The fierce fire that gutted the boys’ dormitory at Victory Nursery and Primary school in Busia Town is believed to have started at about midnight while the pupils were asleep.
Moses Mugwe, the Bukedi South police spokesman, says preliminary investigations point to possible arson.
“We are reliably informed that this dormitory was accomodating 62 male juvenile pupils with some from the upper section and lower classes. Our preliminary findings reveal that while these pupils were resting in their dormitory, someone dropped something and it was lit with fire. No sooner had one of the pupils seen it than he shouted telling his colleagues that there’s fire which had errupted in the dormitory and the rest started fleeing,” said Mugwe.
Godfrey Barasa, the Busia municipal Inspector of Schools, says the school authorities had not been allowed to operate the boarding section.
He also reveals that the affected dormitory did not have fire hydrants, while the matron and the school security guard were not up to the task.
