Headmistress of the Buipe Senior High School madam Ewurtomah Mercy Aluba has said it took over two hours before the Savannah regional command of the Ghana national fire service could respond to their distress call about the fire that engulfed the school on Monday morning.
“The fire started at about 7:30 am from one of the rooms that was locked and we quickly call the district fire service and to our surprise they told us their fire tender was out of commission. We then reported to the Savannah Regional Fire office in Damongo, sadly they came to our aid 2 hours later”.
She said the timely intervention of personal from the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation (BOST), workers of the Savannah cement factory with help from the students put the fire under control.
Madam Mercy revealed that the situation has left 6 rooms completely burnt into ashes. Books, mattress, uniforms supplied by the Free Senior High School secretariat and other personal belongings of the female students were all burnt in the Monday morning fire outbreak.
Briefing the Buipuwura Abdualia Jinapor II on the incident, madam Mercy indicated that, two out of the 152 female students who were displaced by the fire collapsed and are currently receiving treatment at the hospital.
She noted that the girls were traumatized and with the approval of District security committee and the regional education directorate, management agreed to send the female students home for further counseling from their parents and come back on Sunday for academic work to continue.
She said the school management has decided to use their ICT lab, the library and a pending approval from the Methodist bishop to release a facility for them to accommodate the female students temporarily.
For his part, Buipuwura Abdualia Jinapor II described the fire incident as a big blow to academic work in the school especially at the time about 400 students are preparing to sit for WACCE in
He appealed to “all stakeholders especially the Ministry of Education, I know NAPO is a hard working guy and wherever he is, he should know his father is crying so he should try and come and help. You can see, it’s unfortunate the dormitory is destroyed, the dinning hell is under a tree, the assembly hell is under a tree and this is serious”.
“The Buipuwura Abdualia Jinapor II lamented that, the District fire tender has been off the road close for almost one year and Buipe is the hub of industry in the Savannah region”.
“About three weeks ago, three tanker vehicles caught fire at the BOST and it was only God otherwise the whole Buipe would’ve been consumed, we are pleading that whoever is in charge of the Fire Service, the Ministry of Interior, that the fire tender should be replaced immediately. We don’t need to die”.
Some affected students of the school who spoke to Diamond news lamented that all their belongings were burnt in the fire and appealed to the general public for support to enable them continue with school activities.
They said they could not salvage any of their belongings since the fire started at about 7: 30am, a time all students were in class.
Source: Edward A. Ken-Zorre | www.diamondfmonline.com | Ghana
