TERRIBLE! Merchandise worth millions lost in Ntungamo bus fire
People have lost items worth millions because some of the items were in the bus.
Ntungamo: Passengers in a friend bus and residents of Rubaare were engulfed in grief moments when merchandise worth millions perished in a fire that caught friends bus registration number UBL 996N, opposite Jet Oil petro station in Rubaare town council, Rushenyi County, Ntungamo district.
The incident happened in the wee hours of Saturday June, 29, 2024.
Mr. Anthony Kamusiime, told this publication that the bus was coming from Kampala, ferrying business people from shopping to Goma-Congo.
He added that they saw the flames of fire starting from the behind tire, and they used their fire extinguishers to stop the fire, but it had already caught some of the bus’s confines.
‘’People have lost items worth millions because some of the items were in the bus.’’
Ms. Josephin Ulibubengi, a resident of Kyanwazi and a passenger who was heading to Rwanda to visit her relatives, said that the fire reduced her belongings to ashes worth 400,000 shillings.
Another passenger who was also aboard the bus, Mr. Byamungu Twenabuja, a Congolese international, said that many in the bus were business people from Goma-Gisenyi, Congo, who were from Kampala heading to Congo. He said that the fire originated from the behind tire that busted, and the fire caught all they had as their luggage in the bus, with all confinements like clothes, books, shoes, travel bags, cosmetics, laptops, men’s belts, mobile telephones, and electric wires, among others, reduced to ashes and estimated to be worth millions of Ugandan shillings.
He castigated the fire police for coming late when their belongings were already turned into ashes by the fire. “The police were notified about the start of the fire at around 5:15 am but responded late at around 6:00 am; that is almost an hour, which was unfair.” He said.
One of the Congolese international said that they lost their luggage, which contained expensive merchandise like clothes and shoes, and it will not be easy to recover from that loss as business people. She added that she managed to rescue one person in his life with one suitcase, but the rest perished in fire.
By press time, the bus was hauled to Rubaare Police Station for an IOV inspection, and the police have yet to issue a statement over the anonymity.
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