After the fires that gutted a primary school here in Kampala brought to an end more than 19 innocent lives, many questions and sentiments are being raised by the society at large.

The blame game is on and everyone is blaming the other for this. The parents are very furious and given an opportunity they would strangle every administrator at this ill fated school. The incident left the president of the nation shocked at what he saw at the scene, hours after the fateful night.

He was forced to sit on the ground as he tried to comfort one of the survivors. The education minister is being called on to resign, which she has determinedly rejected. Mass prayers are being held everywhere for the lost lives and one official one is slated soon at the school were the souls will be laid to rest in I believe a mass grave.

This is so because the “experts here” can’t know which piece of remaining tissue to give to a particular parent. The young girls were burn so badly that many nearly burnt to ashes. So in interest of not spending any more time examining the remains to verify them, it is better to have them buried in a mass grave at school, which may serve as a “historic” monument for the school. This fire was the 35th in a space of only five years. And in all of them many lives have been lost.

But after this inferno caused a lot of mayhem like many disasters that have befallen our country in the recent past happen, I once again asked myself why we wait for the after math! Yet some of these happenings are sure stoppable in a way.

I mean one can ask him/herself a question. How many portable fire extinguishers were at or indeed in that dormitory? How many people in that dormitory know how to use them? And if saw were they used at this particular incident? Playing this blame game won’t help us prevent future disasters unless we look for solutions.

We have to learn from these so many fires that are taking down the schools here. Before we conclude on stuff like arson like it is the case in this recent one, let’s think of how to stop future disasters.

The above questions bring me to the reason I write this. In Uganda fire extinguishers can be big business. This is so true because, although most of our environment is prone to catching fire, one can walk or live in Kampala for a long time but never will he/she see a fire extinguisher anywhere.

And the only reason I have for this is because these equipments here are made to look like they are meant for only banks, gas stations and the upper class of society. As if it’s only those places/persons that catch fire. Fire extinguishers are few in Uganda yet the population is growing at rocket speed.

We need business people capable of exploiting this situation and invest in fire extinguishers here. Teach the people how to use them. Put them in local markets, public places, stadiums and even at homes to a certain extent. Why not! After all many homes have been affected by fires here. I don’t want to bring in government on this as Uganda as it’s known (liberal economy), an investor can exploit this and earn a lot from it. And this will save lives.

If I have not forgotten, we don’t have more than one organization dealing in fire services. And this is privately owned. Yet it’s more efficient than the national fire station under the Uganda police force.

Therefore to me this is big investment opportunity in Uganda given the rate at which fires and other related disasters have become rampant here.