The Aswa River Region Police Spokesperson, David Ongom Mudong told Uganda Radio Network in an interview on Monday that the explosion was caused by the spontaneous combustion of hydrogen.
The Police Fire and Rescue team contained huge flames from consuming the Multimillion Atiak Sugar Factory in Amuru district following the explosion of the biogas tank on Sunday. According to police reports, the
biogas tank exploded at about 8:30 am sparking huge flames and creating a
large depression adjacent to one of the factory buildings.
The biogas gas plant had been
established for the production of environmentally friendly energy at the
factory using waste from crushed sugarcanes. The Aswa River Region Police Spokesperson, David Ongom Mudong told Uganda Radio Network in an interview on Monday that the
explosion was caused by the spontaneous combustion of hydrogen.
He says a huge quantity of dry
pulp used for biogas production had been left unattended to at the production
plant for more than two years. Mudong says the blast didn’t cause any damage to
the factory or injury to people.
//cue in: “there was a…
Cue out:…which was registered.”//
Mudong blamed the sugar factory
management for negligence, arguing that if the police fire and Rescue team hadn’t responded
in time, the fire would have spread to other areas of the factory causing a huge catastrophe. He advised the management to procure
adequate firefighting equipment to help in emergency fire outbreaks.
//Cue in: “If we had...
Cue out:…their firefighting
equipment.”//
Efforts to get a comment from Mohamud Abdi Ahmed, the Director of Atiak Sugar Factory on the incident by the time of filing this story were futile. The explosion comes at a time the
factory has been non-operational since May this year. The factory was temporarily shut down by the
management due to a shortage of sugarcane, the raw material for the production of sugar.
The factory management faulted
limited supplies on the successive fire outbreaks that have razed down
sugarcanes over the years. The government owns a 40 percent share in the sugar
factory with the largest share owned by Horyal Investments Holding Company Ltd.
