By Canadian Press

Uganda: Fire at boarding school for the blind kills 11

Oct 25, 2022 | 4:37 AM

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — A fire at a boarding school for blind students killed 11 people, including children, in a rural community just outside Uganda’s capital, Kampala, police said Tuesday.

Police said in a statement that six other people were hospitalized in critical condition. They said it was not yet known what caused the fire that gutted a girls’ dormitory at Salama School for the Blind.

The fire broke out overnight at the school in the district of Mukono, police spokesman Luke Owoyesigire said.

Fatuma Ndisaba, a top official in Mukono, told local broadcaster NTV that the victims, including girls between the ages of 7 and 10, were burned beyond recognition. The victims’ bodies will be identified through DNA analysis, she said.

“You cannot tell who is who,” she said, speaking of the charred bodies.

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A small crowd that included distressed women gathered outside the school’s gates.

Police cordoned off the scene, and military officials were seen investigating. Britain’s Princess Anne, who is expected in the East African country this week, was scheduled to visit the school on Friday.

Fires at schools have been a cause of concern for education officials in Uganda, where classrooms and dormitories are often crowded, and there’s usually no firefighting equipment in place. Officials have cited poor electrical connections as sparking blazes in some cases.

Two dormitories at a prominent boarding school in Kampala were destroyed in separate incidents in 2020. No one was hurt.

In 2008, 19 elementary school students were killed in a nighttime fire at a boarding school in Kampala.

Rodney Muhumuza, The Associated Press