Three Ugandan nationals have died after a shop they were sleeping in caught fire in Juba’s Gudele area on Thursday night.
Another Ugandan national managed to escape from the fire.
According to the police report, the four were sleeping in a furniture store which they also used as their carpentry workshop.
“The fire broke out in the furniture shop at night around 1 O’clock. The occupants who were there in the house tried their level best from the burn and suffocation to get out, but unfortunately, they couldn’t,” said Brigadier General James Dak, the deputy spokesperson of the National Police Service.
The fire reportedly consumed everything.
Among the dead are two male and one female.
“They are all Ugandan nationals and now the bodies are in the mortuary for post-mortem examination,” Brig. Gen. Dak stated.
He added that they are collecting information to establish the cause of the fire.
“When we went to the scene of the incident, we found that there is frame of shisha. I think they have been smoking shisha but we are still collecting evidence to see what is the real cause of the fire is.”
Police said it will also rely on information from the survivor of the incident.
“The person who managed to escape until now is nowhere to be seen…. but they are trying to trace where he ran and he will be the first person who will give us the actual eyewitness testimony because the incident happen while he was in the room,” Dak stated.
In November 2021, two Ugandan women and a South Sudanese died in a fire incident in the same Gudele area.
