Mysterious fire on Thursday morning gutted Kitgum stage in Lira town burning to ashes seven vehicles including one government double cabin pick up truck.
The fire also burnt Kitgum police out-post but one suspect who was in the police cell was rescued by the police patrol personnel.
The mysterious fire reportedly started at around 2:35am on Thursday burning goods worth Shs200 million.
Jolly Joe Odongo, a local resident whose home is just less than two hundred meters from the scene, said the fire is believed to have started from a parked Fuso truck which was loaded with two full tanks of fuel believed to be petrol but declined to comment further.
Mubbale David, a Kitgum based businessman whose goods including 6 vehicle engines and maize hullers worth 16 million shillings were burnt in a FUSO registration number UAP 543F, said he was just informed about the fire a few minutes later.
But he suspects that the fire could have been ignited by somebody whom they suspect to be having a wrangle with the taxi vehicle owner. The taxi was also parked together at the stage.
Mubbale said he has a 30 million shillings loan from Stanbic Bank and is worried about how he will be servicing the loan since all his capital is lost in the incident.
Lira DPC Robert Ssematta said police attempts to put off the fire were futile since there is no fire fighting vehicle in the district. Ssematta added that they tried to request for the fire fighting vehicle from Gulu but it was too late.
Ssematta said the cause of the fire is not yet known since there is already conflicting reports.
He said one eye witness has told police that someone ignited the fire while others are saying the fire was caused by a falling electricity wire that landed on a parked truck which was loaded with two drums of fuel hence sparking off the fire.
Lira RDC Susan Akany appealed to the government to consider allocating to Lango region a standby police fire fighting vehicle. She described the incident as unfortunate.
