By Andrew Irumba
Fort Portal: Fire has gutted Fort Portal Tourism City lorry park in Kisenyi this evening and believed to have destroyed property and merchandise estimated to be in billions of shillings.
Eyewitnesses in Fort Portal town said that fire started after a blast went off and shortly thereafter there was a fire outbreak which quickly spread to other parts of the Park. Sources revealed that the tragedy occurred after a fuel truck reportedly caught fire, leading to an explosion that destroyed at least 4 vehicles and boda-bodas which were parked nearby,burning several surrounding buildings,according to some eyewitnesses in Fort Portal.
However, following the fire outbreak, property which included vehicles, buildings and traders’ merchandise was burnt to ashes. Police fire fighters were called to the scene but onlookers there said they delayed to respond to the situation. Although they later fought with the fire for at least one hour until they managed to put it out.
By the time we went to press, the police had managed to contain the fire although property worth billions of shillings had already been destroyed. However, initial investigations indicate that the fire broke out after a fuel truck developed a mechanical problem along the highway, before it exploded into billows of fire. It is not yet clear what made the fuel tanker explode, although the police are still conducting investigations into the matter.
