Police Fire Brigade extinguish the fire.
At approximately 4PM on Sunday, the
showroom of car dealer, Toyota, at the Kampala offices caught fire that
cost the company an estimated Shs900m.
Mr
Pieter Ovebeek, the general manager Toyota revealed that the company
had suffered a loss of three motor vehicles and three motorcycles
roughly bringing it to a cost of Shs900m.
“A
rough estimate because we still have assessors evaluating the
situation; it is about Shs800m-Shs900m,” he said during a press briefing
at their offices on Monday.
Mr Ovebeek added that they would only give exact figures after a report from investigations is revealed.
Damaged
property included a Land Cruiser Prado estimated to cost
$90,000,(Shs343m); Land Cruiser Double Cabin Pickup costing
$70,000(Shs267m); a Toyota Fortuner costing $65,000 (Shs248m);
workstations and furniture among others.
While
police and independent investigations into the cause of the fire are
still ongoing, Mr Ovebeek said a quick analysis after the fire was
contained indicated that the cause could have been an electrical short
circuit.
The fire was contained an
hour into the debacle as security company KK as well as neighbours
alerted the fire department who arrived at the scene within the shortest
time possible.
“The fire was
contained within the showroom by the gallant men and women of the fire
services department at about 5p.m,” Ovebeek said.
Head of human resource at Toyota, Mr Paul Rumanda Rugambwa, said there were no employees at the time.
Compensation
The
cars which appeared to be in a deplorable state according to Mr
Rumanda, will be scrapped after an assessment on whether or not they
could cause harm to human lives once on the market.
“They
will be scrapped and we shall not sell them. We have to first ensure
they are safe," he said, adding that while one is burnt out and written
off, "the others might have minor damages and we are not sure of what
has affected them. We have to do a full inspection and scrap the
vehicles,” he said.
Asked about
any compensation procedures, Mr Ovebeek said the company is insured by a
pool of insurers whose assessors were at the scene on Sunday to make
their independent report that will be used to determine Toyota’s
viability for a claim.
Mr Ovebeek
said while it might take a while to repair the place, the company
expects to get back to full operations tomorrow as there was no visible
damage to their main computers.
Toyota offices elsewhere, he said, are not affected.
Mr Ovebeek also said that mitigation measures will be put in place after discovering the cause of fire.
editorial@ug.nationmedia.com
No comments :
Post a Comment