A fire today morning gutted a merchandise store along Ring road in Gulu town destroying most of the merchandise in the store. The fire started at around 8:40 am and went on for an hour before the police fire brigade arrived.
Merchandise destroyed included books, plastic utensils, steel wires, and maize flour, among others.
Patricia Aromo, an eye witness told Acholi Times: “We were here at the drug shop then we started seeing smoke coming from the ventilations of the store. We called people and we could not get Okello (the owner of the shop) because his phone was off.’’
When the police fire brigade arrived at the scene, they could looked on helplessly as the door to the store was locked and they could not find a suitable entry point into the house to use for flashing water.
George Okello, the owner of the merchandise store eventually arrived at the scene of the fire and said he suspects it’s the work of arsonists.
“I suspect that someone might have thrown some fire from the back of the store where there is a hole on the wall,’’ said a distraught Okello who said he had lost property worth 10 million Uganda shillings.
The police fire brigade at the scene declined to comment.
Okello said he financed his business through loans from financial institutions.
