Derrick Mugyenyi, a senior four student at Kabale Brainstorm High School in Kabale municipality, is on life support at Rugamama hospital. He inhaled too much smoke while trying to save his things from the fire that destroyed their dormitories on Tuesday.
A fire gutted Kaguta and Lumumba boys’ dormitories at Kabale Brainstorm High School around 2:30 pm on Tuesday. Students had returned to class after lunch when they saw huge smoke coming out of the three-story building. Fire damaged the building and destroyed beds and students’ belongings, especially books, bedding, shoes, and clothes, among others.
The exact cause of the fire is still unknown, according to police and school administration. On Tuesday evening, the school’s head teacher, Bernard Bikorwomuhangi, told our reporter that there were no human casualties resulting from the fire. But on Wednesday night, our reporter heard that Derrick Mugyenyi, a senior four student at the school who lives in Lower Bugongi in the Northern Division of Kabale Municipality, was fighting for his life at Rugarama hospital because of the school fire.
URN managed to gain access to Rugarama hospital and physically saw Mugyenyi on life support in the intensive care unit. The student was struggling to talk, unable to recognize people and support himself. His brother, Denis Ayebare, said that Mugenyi was rushed unconscious to the hospital by the school guard.
Ayebare says that they were informed that Mugenyi inhaled a lot of smoke and fainted while trying to save his property. He explained that upon being rushed to the hospital, medics placed him on life support. Ayebare said that although Mugyenyi was still on life support, he was showing some signs of improvement.
A health officer in the unit told our reporter, on condition of anonymity, that Mugyenyi experienced asphyxiation for a long time as a result of inhaling the smoke. The source said the smoke could be poisonous since it was coming from many things like clothes, mattresses, and papers. Our reporter was unable to get a comment from the school’s head teacher, Bernard Bikorwomuhangi, since he could not answer his phone calls.
