NEWS– Passengers in the Kabale bound Friends bus and residents of Rubaare Town Council in Ntungamo district were on Saturday morning treated scary scenes as the bus caught fire that is said to have left merchandise worth millions lost.
The bus belonging to Friends bus company limited registration number UBL 996N caught fire this morning opposite Jet Oil petro station in Rubaare town council, Rushenyi county Ntungamo district.
According to Anthony Kamusiime an eye witness who works as pump attendant at Jet Oil station, the bus was coming from Kampala ferrying business people from shopping heading to Goma-Congo.
Kamusiime added that the bus attendants noticed the flames of fire emanating from the behind tyre and tried to put it off using their onboard extinguishers to put it off but it had already gutted some of the bus confinements including the luggage of the travellers.
Despite losing millions in merchandise, no death or injuries have been reported yet.
Ms Josephin Ulibubengi, a resident of Kyanwazi, a passenger who was heading to Rwanda to visit her relatives told our reporter that the fire reduced her belongings worth UGX. 400,000 to ashes.
Another passenger who was also aboard the bus, Byamungu Twenabuja, a Congolese international said that most passengers on the bus were business people from Goma-Gisenyi Congo who were from a shopping trip in Kampala.
Twenabuja added that the fire that originated from the bus’ behind tyre that burst reduced their luggage in the bus with all confinements like, clothes, books, shoes, travelling bags, cosmetics, laptops, belts, mobile telephones, electric wires among others estimated to cost millions of Ugandan shillings to ashes.
He castigated the fire Police for arriving late at the scene when their belongings had already been turned into ashes by the fire.
“The police were notified about this fire at around 5:15am but arrived at the scene at around 6:00 am, that is almost an hour which was unfair” he said.
Ms Kyomuhendo, also a Congolese national said that they lost their lugguage which contained expensive merchandise like clothes and shoes and it will be not easy to recover from that loss as business people.
The driver of the Friends bus that caught fire could not speak to our reporter saying that he was not ready since he was still fornicating.
By press time the bus had already been hauled to Rubaare Police station for IOV inspection and Police was yet to issue a statement about this incident.
