At least one person was killed after a monstrous inferno destroyed much of the centre of the Ugandan town of Rukungiri, 381km south of the capital Kampala.
Eyewitness accounts suggest that the individual killed in Thursday evening’s ‘apocalyptic’ fire was a trader who was attempting to save his merchandise but got devoured by the flames.
Merchandise worth millions of Ugandan shillings were destroyed as the flames took hold of the centre of the town with huge plums of smoke rising into the evening sky and seen for miles.
Opposition leader Kizza Besigye writing on his Facebook page claimed the fire tender at Rukungiri Police had failed to function and apparently allowed the fire to rage for hours.
The police who say they are investigating the cause of the inferno, claimed a resident of the town had alerted the fire brigade who were reportedly told that the fire was caused by a gas cylinder explosion.
Other eyewitnesses said the explosion occurred near a milling factory and caused the fire to quickly spread to a line of nearby welding workshops.
It took several hours for the fire brigade to successfully battle the flames by which time extensive damage had been done.
As of Friday afternoon the police were still on the scene to ascertain the cause of the fire.
Among the properties lost were four welding machines President Yoweri Museveni had donated to a youth group last year.
WN/as/APA