Police are investigating circumstances under which three people perished in a home fire on Monday night at Kinawa Cell, Kyengera Town Council in Wakiso District.
Police identified the deceased as landlady Halima Nankaja, 50, and her 3-year-old male grandson only identified as Ayubu. Aisha Nambi, a female juvenile aged 13 also died upon reaching Kiruddu Hospital.
“It’s alleged that the three entered their house, locked the doors and slept in their double room residential house. Fire broke out from inside while they were asleep until when neighbors saw the fire,” Kampala metropolitan police spokesperson Patrick Onyango said of the incident.
Neighbors dug through walls and cut the metallic doors to gain access to the victims in a rescue operation.
“They found the 3-year-old baby burnt to ashes, Nankanja was also burnt to death. Police was notified and responded with fire trucks. Fire was extinguished by locals before the arrival of the brigade that was hampered by lack of clear access to the scene,” Onyango noted.
Property worth millions of shillings was destroyed. However, other five single rental rooms attached to the same house were saved from the fire as it didn’t spread.
The two dead bodies were taken to city mortuary for postmortem and the third body was still at Kiruddu Mortuary by press time with the cause of fire not yet established.
This is not the first time for deadly home fires in the district. In 2018, a woman in Kasangati Town Council perished in a home fire. Police identified the deceased as Joyce Nakiwala, 75, a resident of Kyambongo Mamasoli in Kasangati town council, Wakiso district. Fire was suspected to have resulted from a burning charcoal stove.
Nakiwala was reportedly disabled and could not move without support. Police fire brigade and local authorities extinguished the fire but it was too late to save Nakiwala’s life.
In March 2020, fire gutted students’ dormitory at Gayaza High School in Kasangati Town Council. Police fire brigade contained the fire though property and dormitory got burnt but no casualties were reported.
