Parents and students Standard College in Ntungamo district are in tears after fire gutted a student's dormitory and reduced properties into ashes. The fire is said to have started in the Girl's Dormitory hosting senior four students in the wee hours of this morning.
It reduced student's items such as books, suit cases, beddings and clothes to ash. The fire burnt two students seriously, while others developed complications resulting from suffocation. Those with serious burns are hospitalised at Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital.
The remaining students are hospitalised at Ntungamo family clinic. Geoffrey Orochi, the Ntungamo District Police Commander, says they are holding 32 students believed to have started the fire. It started the students started the fire using petrol.
The students had threatened to strike and cut off power supply in the entire school to protest being locked inside their dormitories by the school guards. The students accuse the guards of locking them inside their dormitories to prevent them from accessing their classrooms for reading.
A security guard at the school says the administration instructed them at the beginning of this term to lock the girl's students inside their dormitory to stop them from escaping at night. The school head teacher, Boaz Ruyimbazi declined to speak to journalists about the strike, saying he was still in shock.
The Director of the School, Steven Tashobya, a Commissioner with Electoral Commission said the administration was trying to normalize the situation and investigate the cause of the fire.