Over $25m was lost by investors on Tuesday night as fie destroyed Grace Foam Mattress factory, burning it into ashes at Sino-Uganda Mbale Industrial Park.
“Investors of Grace Foam mattress told me they lost over $25m in the fire last evening, this is bad for our investors to suffer because of fire Police has informed me that the have already started putting up fire fighting and prevention measures in all industrial parks, this should not repeat again,” Hon. Evelyn Anite the state minister of privatisation said in a tweet on Wednesday.
Grace Foam factory yesterday night 20th/Dec/ 2022 fire erupted and burnt down everything into ashes in Sino-Uganda Mbale Industrial Park in Mbale city.
After receiving the information about this fire outbreak, various local leaders in the city including area MP Karim Masaba for Industrial city Division, Cassim Namugali the mayor of Mbale city RCC John Lex Achila visited the scene.
According to Bodhi Xu the administration manager of SINO-Uganda Mbale Industrial Park told journalists that everything in this factory including raw materials, finished products and machines were lost and nothing was saved though they have not yet assessed the total loss in terms of money.
Mbale city RCC Mr. Achilla John Rex after was not satisfied by the capacity of the firefighting brigade of police in the region since they have only two firefighting trucks in the region which could not save the assets that burnt.
“The fire was too much yet the problem in Mbale we only have two fire fighting equipments, by the time we called for help from Tororo fire had destroyed everything we couldn’t save anything.”
He said that, the Uganda police fire brigade for Elgon region came in to try to calm down the situation but its capacity was inadequate since the region has only one fire extinguishing truck.
ASP Rogers Taitika the Elgon region police spokesperson said that, The fire started at around 7:00 pm on 20th Dec 2022 which left properties worth billions destroyed.
Taitika said, when they received information about this fire our firefighting squad of Uganda police rushed and arrived to the scene in time but since this is a mattress manufacturing factory the rate at which the fire was exploding was high that is why we were unable to contain it.
“Together with UPDF and Police we immediately had to call in to other neighbours of Tororo to help us with other Fire Brigade to battle hard and control the fire from not to reaching to other factories which could have caused more danger to the investors.
He added that, they contacted their colleagues from the neighboring regions of South Bukedi region and also Teso to support them with their firefighting trucks to enable them save the burning factory and more two trucks came but did not manage the situation.
“There are some reports moving around that people have died in the fire outbreak but i would like to confirm that No life lost and all workers who were in the factory moved out well.
Taitika also added that the clear cause of this fire is not yet well known but as police we are continuing to investigate.
