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Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Four children have died in a house fire in Kira municipality, Wakiso district. The minors were killed in the fire that gutted the residence of Annet Naigaga, a dealer in roasted maize and sweet bananas in Kawuku cell, Kira municipality in Wakiso district around 06:00am on Thursday morning.
The dead are 8-year-old Even Namulindwa, 6-year-old Isan Kibuuka, both Naigaga’s children, and her granddaughters Noreen Nansubuga and her sister only identified as Cynthia, both below five years of age.
It is alleged that Naigaga had gone to fetch water from a well about 500 meters from her home and left the minors sleeping when the fire started. Abas Ssenyonjo, the Kira Division Police Commander says that the children were inside their two-bedroom semi-permanent house with their 12-year-old sister, Catherine Nakkasi who was preparing to go to school.
“We suspect that Nakasi left the candle burning inside the house or a charcoal stove before she left for school. The neighbors saw a lot of smoke coming from the house and children were crying for help,” Ssenyonjo said.
He explains that the children could have been saved but both the bedroom and front doors were closed and by the time they broke in, the children had already suffocated to death.
He says that a team of detectives who rushed to the fire scene found a motorcycle inside one of the rooms, which is suspected to have fueled the fire.
The Kampala Metropolitan Deputy Police spokesperson Luke Owoyesigyire says that officers from CID have been dispatched to the scene to carry out more investigations into the unfortunate incident.
The 2021 crime report released by the Directorate of Fire and Rescue services shows that 1,258 fire incidents were registered. Of these, 364 were on residential premises. Police attributed 164 fires to people leaving charcoal stoves and candles burning.
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