The fire broke out at Salama school in the village of Luga, about 45 kilometers east of the capital Kampala, around 1 am, Ugandan police said. “The cause of the fire is currently unknown, but we do know that 11 deaths have been confirmed and six people have been hospitalized in critical condition,” the police said in a statement.
The blind students were taken by surprise in their sleep and had no way out because of the building’s mandatory burglar-resistant windows. The dorm mostly housed girls attending primary school, but the school’s principal, Francis Kirube, stated that some underprivileged boys from the village also stayed in a room next to the dorm.