About 900 students of the Northern School of Business Senior High School (NOBISCO) have been displaced after fire gutted the girls’ dormitory block.
The fire, which started at about 2 p.m. yesterday in the afternoon, caused extensive damage to the building and destroyed students’ mattresses, trunks, uniforms, books, and other essential learning materials.
Some students reportedly collapsed out of shock during the incident and were rushed to nearby health facilities.
The students could not salvage their belongings as the fire spread rapidly, leaving them helpless until personnel from the Ghana Fire Service arrived.
However, personnel managed to bring the situation under control, preventing the flames from spreading to other parts of the school.
Lamentations
The Senior Housemistress of the school, Anderatu Iddrisu, described the incident as devastating.
Some of the students left stranded with their belongings after the fire incident
“We were in our office handling some issues with students when another student rushed in shouting ‘fire’ and demanding the keys to the dormitories,” she recounted.
Ms Iddrisu indicated that the affected students had lost all their personal belongings.
She, therefore, appealed to the government, non-governmental organisations, and the public to support the displaced students with learning materials to enable academic work to continue.
Distress calls
The Public Relations Officer of the Northern Regional Commander of GNFS, Assistant Divisional Officer Grade I Hudu Baba, said: “When we arrived, the fire had already engulfed the entire building, but we managed to bring it under control. Unfortunately, a lot of learning materials were destroyed”.
He said an investigation had since begun to unravel the cause of the fire outbreak.
Break
Assessing the situation, the Northern Regional Minister, Adolf John Ali, directed that the affected students should return home for a week, while authorities put measures in place to provide temporary accommodation for them.
He said final-year students would be relocated to other dormitories, and further arrangements made to ensure the continuation of academic activities for the rest of the term.
Source:
www.graphic.com.gh
