Fire has gutted part of Rwanda Energy Group (REG) store that contains electrical material, causing substantial loss to the company, REG officials and police have said.

The incident occurred on Sunday evening in Remera Sector, Gasabo District where the multi-billion store is located, according to the officials.

Speaking to The New Times, REG Chief Executive Officer, Ron Weiss, said it was unfortunate that fire gutted the store, adding that surveillance cameras in and around the store showed that the fire started from outside their stock.

"Something flew over the fence and it started the fire and burnt some electrical materials,” he said.

He added that about 10 per cent of the multi-billion store was damaged but he could not reveal the estimated amount of the loss suffered. The fire was stopped by police fire brigades.

Inside the store, he said, there were connectors, disconnectors, isolators among other valuables.

"We don’t think anyone caused the fire, we think it was a mistake but police has started the investigations, we will work with police and see if we can take extra measures to avoid similar incidents in the future,” he added

According to Senior Superintendent of Police Emmanuel Hitayezu, the City of Kigali Police Spokesperson, police have launched investigations to ascertain the real cause of the incident.

"It is true that fire gutted the REG store, police intervened and the fire was put out before it could spread throughout the whole store, investigations are also ongoing to ascertain the real cause of the incident and losses it may have caused,” he said

Sources say that the fire might have been caused by a cleaner who was working from outside the store but we could not verify the allegations.

The store is estimated to be worth billions of francs and the damages caused by the fire are estimated in millions.

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