The top floor of the Junior High Schol block at the St. Lisbert International School was razed down by an inferno Friday morning.
The fire started just after 5 a.m., while students mostly boarders were preparing for morning lessons, police and local media reported.
“We were in our dormitories preparing to come out when my friend prompted us that our classroom has been gutted by fire. So we rushed to the scene with water but we couldn’t open the doors. We called the fire service severally before they responded”, a traumatized student told dailymailgh.com.
Another said: “We experienced some intermittent power supply but we thought our prepaid meter had run out. We suddenly heard one of the girls screamed to our mistress to tell her of the fire outbreak in one of the classrooms. We had to quickly leap for safety. It was a horrible scene”.
Firefighters had brought the situation under control when dailymailgh.com visited the scene. Several school properties had been destroyed as deep cracks were seen at the affected part of the school block.
“The spread of the inferno was aided by gas cylinders in one of the particular rooms [whose occupant was not around at the time the incident occured]. But our crew was able to douse the flame. It is an 18 classroom block but six of them have been affected”, said DO III James Akowuah, an officer in charge of the Nkawie Fire Station.
The cause of the fire is yet to be established. Pupils and teachers had arrived in the school to the shocking sight of their burnt classroom block.
They were spotted loitering as some of the teachers sat in groups to discuss the destruction at the time dailymailgh.com toured the scene. A few curious ones tried to salvage some burnt books from the debris.
Management of the school located at Abuakwa in the Atwima Nwabiagya South Municipality of the Ashanti Region will not comment on the development but close sources say it will consider a suspension of academic work, citing safety concerns.
“It comes at the time final year students are preparing to write exams. We are waiting for further directives from school authorities”, a teacher who wants to remain anonymous told our news crew.
SOURCE: By Kwame Yeboa, DAILY MAIL GH
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