A fire broke out at the Ministry of Education (Mineduc) building, causing a stampede as trapped staff escaped unhurt yesterday.
It took the intervention of the police, fire brigade and Electrogaz officials to rescue workers held hostage by the burning fire in the frantic one-hour escape.

Education Minister Dr Jeanne d’Arc Mujawamariya was out of the building by the time the fire broke out.

According to Electrogaz staff, Amran Kagozi, the fire, which started on the second floor of the building, was caused by a short circuit. Kagozi said the transmitter that serves the second floor was overloaded by the user.

The floor houses the office, Jean de Dieu Mucyo, chairs the Commission of Inquiry into the alleged complicity of the French government in the 1994 Rwanda Genocide.

 "The fire did not hurt anybody because it was put out very fast,” Mucyo told this reporter.

Eyewitness said by the time of the fire breakout, all workers were in their respective offices.

The staff said there was some sort of ‘explosion’ before the huge smoke billowed the building.

Electrogaz officials switched off the main transmitter outside the building before police started evacuating staff who had been trapped.

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