Fire has gutted the agri-chemicals and equipment central store of the Ministry of Agriculture, Animals Industries and Fisheries along Buganda road in Wandegeya in Kampala.

The store shares the same compound with the Uganda Trypanosomiasis Control Council and Uganda Veterinary Board offices. Eyewitnesses say the fire spread from a small heap of garbage that was being burnt behind the storage facility around 11 am.

“We saw the fire at the corner behind and we asked the guard to let us enter and pour water but he refused and called 911. The water trucks came a little bit late when the fire had already spread to other parts of the store,” one eyewitness said.

The facility has been storing different agrochemicals for weed control, animals and even spray pumps that are sent to other parts of the country. One of the firefighters at the site was heard, saying that the facility didn’t have any fire extinguisher or nearby water hydrant that would help in the firefight.

As such, fire tenders had to move back and forth to collect water to combat the fire. Police firefighters were struggling to contain the fire by the time of publishing this story. They could be seen trying to break the walls of the facility to try and put off the huge flames that could be seen in the store.