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Shs7b medical equipment destroyed as fire burns warehouse
This photo taken on April 9, 2021 shows firefighters trying to extinguish fire that has caught a Joint Medical Stores warehouse on 5th street in Industrial, Kampala. PHOTO/ ABUBAKER LUBOWA
The police fire brigade has for the last three hours been battling a fire that broke out at Madhivani ware houses on 5th Street, Industrial area, Kampala.
The fire gutted stores housing Star Pharmaceuticals Limited, Joint Medical Stores (JMS) and Mi-Tech, an electronics assembling company from a corridor where the welding was happening.
Witnesses say the fire started between 11 and 11:30am.
The police fire brigade was just arriving when we got to the scene at 12:10 pm.
"It started at around at around 11:45 am in a single room with boxes where they were welding. They tried to use their emergency extinguisher but it was spreading because of the wind. Then it spread to the JMS that also has boxes of medicines and then to the Mi-tech store that has lots of plastics.
"It was around 11:30am. We saw the fire in the Joint Medical Stores. They were welding and the fire sparked. They did not notice it at first but the fire brigade took long to come and everything has perished," said Ms Zahara Nakazibwe, who works with Mi-Tech.
Mr Bildard Baguma, the executive director JMS, says about Shs7billion worth of equipment and medicines was lost in the fire.
A UPDF officer looks on as fire burns Joint Medical Stores warehouse on 5th Street in Industrial area in Kampala
He said unspecified number of ICU beds were also destroyed in the fire.
By press time, more than 20 water trucks had been used in efforts to contain the fire.
