Fire has gutted Masoro Health Centre in the Northern Province, Rulindo District, destroying a building that houses a laboratory, meetings, vaccination and consultation rooms.

The Saturday morning fire that started at around 5:30 am was caused by an electric short-circuit, Police said.

Superintendent Emmanuel Hitayezu, the Northern Province Regional Police Spokesperson, confirmed the incident, saying there were no deaths or injuries.

The fire is suspected to have started from a refrigerator containing medicines in a laboratory before spreading to the rest of the building, Hitayezu said.

"There was a problem of electricity the previous day (Friday) as it was on-and-off. The highly flammable medicines in the refrigerator [caused a big fire] that spread to adjacent rooms,” he said

A large section of the building went up in flames despite timely and combined efforts of the local residents, the Rwanda Defence Forces and Police. It took several hours to put out the raging flame.

Hitayezu urged property owners to put in place firefighting equipment to use in case of fire outbreak. He also requested the electricity distribution company to alert the public and advice consumers to turnoff electrical appliances in case of power outage.

Prosper Mulindwa, the vice mayor in charge of economic affairs told The Sunday Times that the roof of building was totally destroyed. He however said that initial assessment indicates that the building could be renovated without demolishing the whole structure.

There has been a spate of fires in various parts of the country, especially in the City of Kigali, and the recent report by the Ministry of Internal Security says that 60 per cent of the fire outbreaks were caused by poor wiring and electrical faults.