Several female Junior Secondary School (JSS 2) students of Federal Government Girls College (FGGC), Old Umuahia in Umuahia South Local Government Area of Abia State on Tuesday escaped death as fire gut their hostel blocks.
Though no life was lost, our correspondent gathered that the students and school lost property worth millions of naira to the inferno.
The students were said to be inside their classes writing their exams when the incident started and were helpless as they couldn’t save anything from the fire.
Sources within the school told infonet9ja.com that the affected block was a JSS 3 block but currently occupied by the JSS 2 class as those in JSS 3 had gone home after they had finished their exams.
The sources attributed the cause of the fire to electrical fault or power surge.
“The three hostel blocks contain over 400 students. Three blocks were affected by the fire. Most of the students’ property and provision were affected. Mattresses and beds got burnt.
“The students left for evening classes and few minutes later, one of the matrons started shouting Fire. Everybody around had to rush to the scene.”
Corroborating the sources, the Acting State Fire Chief, Mr. Arua Nnanna in a telephone interview said “the cause of the fire has not been established, but from the report that we got from the field, we are suspecting electrical fault. At the time of the incident, the students were not inside the hostel.
“They were at the other side of the hostel doing one thing or the other because examination is going on.
“The level of alertness was so poor and it happens that there was a spark in one of the control switches. The effect of the spark caused all the electrical wire within the area to catch fire.
“The fire engulfed their mattresses, beds and other valuables of the students. The fire started from one room to the other and by the time they called, we were able to cut the spread of the fire.
“If not because of our presence, the fire could have engulfed the entire hostel blocks, but our presence limited it to a section.
“It will be difficult to put to estimate, the damage of the fire because, they lost so much. The damage runs into millions of naira. We equally saved property worth several millions of naira as well.
“From my assessment, each of the rooms contains about 20-30 students and about 3 hostel out of 5 blocks were affected. What they have to fight the fire was not enough, even though that they have fire extinguisher.
“They don’t have early warning system; a smoke detector. The early warning system could have help them to the damage wouldn’t have been much. But before they could raise an alarm, the fire had already overpowered the staff and others who were there to fight the fire.”
Meanwhile, Governor Okezie Ikpeazu has commiserated with the management and staff of the federal government school over the unfortunate fire outbreak.
Governor Ikpeazu represented by his Chief of Staff, Chief Okey Ahaiwe, speaking when he went on an on the spot assessment of the fire outbreak decried the level of damages recorded in the inferno, especially as the facilities that were destroyed have displaced the students.
Governor Ikpeazu directed the school management and PTA to articulate the damages and forward same to government, assuring that, though the school is a federal government owned establishment, his government would assist to ensure the damages are mitigated.
He lauded the pro-activeness of the personnel of Abia State Fire Services, who moved in quickly to extinguish the fire and thanked God that no life was lost.
He used the opportunity to advise Abia people and residents to always apply caution in the use of electrical appliances as well as ensure that they install fire extinguishers in their homes and business centres.
Narrating their ordeals earlier, the Principal of the school, Mrs. Ngozi Idika Kalu said the students went on prep when it was noticed that smoke was coming out from the hostel and the entire school community and the men of Abia State Fire Services were alerted as it turned out to be a fire outbreak.
Mrs. Idika-Kalu, who stated that the cause of the inferno could not be ascertained disclosed that many belongings of the students including beds, foams, phones, clothings, buckets, books, beverages among others were damaged.
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She commended Governor Okezie Ikpeazu for responding quickly to save the situation, saying that the presence of the Chief of Staff to the Governor, Chief Okey Ahaiwe, the Commissioner for Homeland Security, Chief Sopuruchi Bekee, the Permanent Secretary, Government House, Umuahia, Mr. Alozie Odoemena, men of the Abia State Fire Service among others encouraged them greatly as it made it easy for the fire to be extinguished while it did not equally get beyond the affected hostel.
