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Fire at Ugandan school found to be deliberate

by amyjudd | April 15, 2008 at 10:15 am | 154 views | add comment | 0 recommendations

The fire that killed at least 19 children and two adults at a school dormitory in Uganda, is now thought to have been started deliberately.

"Preliminary investigations indicate that it was homicide," Kale Kaihura, the police inspector general, told reporters at the school outside the capital Kampala on Tuesday.
He said that interviews with teachers and survivors led him to believe the fire was started deliberately.

Frederick Bugembe, a teacher at the Budo school, said there were 58 girls in the dormitory, but some managed to wriggle through narrow windows.
It is understood that the doors to the dormitory were locked from the outside.

The children, aged between 7 and 10 had been sleeping at the time.

Hundreds of parents arrived at the school, which has around 1,000 students, to search for their children.

"Help me, oh God please help me," Jacqueline Bakoba cried as she lifted up part of the collapsed roof looking for her missing daughter.

It was the third deadly fire at a school in Uganda in two years.