The director of Leo’s Junior Primary School in Masaka district, Leonard Sserwanja, is among two people currently being held at Masaka Central Police Station in connection with the fire that burnt two school dormitories on Wednesday morning and left five pupils dead.
The school matron also sustained severe burns as she tried to rescue the pupils.
Also in custody is Darlington Kiyingi, the head teacher of the school.
The Southern Regional Police commander Simon Peter Wafana says the two could be charged with criminal negligence that caused death.
Wafana says that after realizing the fire outbreak in the school, they delayed to call for police help until the situation worsened causing the deaths of pupils.
Wafana says after a tip off from locals in Nyendo, he rushed to the scene and found that the school workers had opted to use water and a school cleaning pipe to fight the fire flames instead of calling the police fire department.
He added that the headmaster had also defied the recommended sleeping arrangement for pupils and distance between beds, saying that the deceased pupils could not escape from the far corners of the dormitory where they were congested.
Wafana noted that when the school caught fire in 2010, they cautioned the school management against overcrowding the pupils in dormitories.
Michael Ouni, the police fire department commandant, says that had the school management notified them in time, they would have saved the pupils’ lives. He explained that by the time they reached the school, the roof had already collapsed.
Ouni added that two of the dead pupils were found lying in between the compacted beds, suggesting that they were struggling to get their way out of the room.
Shortly before being arrested, Sserwanja said that he was constructing a two-story structure to accommodate some of the pupils.
He explained that by the time fire begun he was at his home in Misaali and that when he came the flames had consumed most of the dormitory.
But Darlington Kiyingi, the head teacher, said that he thought he would use the manpower of the school guards to help him put the fire out.
He noted that because of shock he forgot to call police in time until one of his guards raised them.
The bodies were taken to Masaka Referral Hospital for DNA tests to identify the dead.
The two burnt dormitories had capacity to accommodate 99 pupils sleeping on 33 triple decker beds in each.
The school has a population of 1,350 pupils.
In 2008, at least 20 pupils perished when fire burnt a domitory at Buddo Junior School in Mpigi district.
