Fire destroyed part of school

school_fireStudents and teachers of Sigatoka Methodist School were in shock as they arrived on Monday morning to find part of their school burnt to ashes in an early morning blaze.

The fire which started at around 5:30 am destroyed 12 classrooms and a teacher’s living quarters and the windy conditions made the situation worse for the firefighters who struggled to bring the fire under control and stop it from spreading to other parts of the building.

An eye witness Rahul Prasad told FBC News that “He was asleep when he heard what he thought were firecrackers.

“Actually I was sleeping at night and I could hear sound of fire crackers like blowing up across the bridge. I didn’t care much but when I was wake up I saw through my window, I saw this huge fire and when ran I saw the school was on fire. When I reached the scene, the blaze was really high, actually the fire fighters arrived five to ten minutes later. There were about 7 classrooms that got burnt, two partly which the fire fighters managed to stop and they saved other classrooms. The teacher’s quarters was burnt very badly, they couldn’t save it but the headteacher, his wife and children are safe”.

Prasad says, some school children have arrived at the school.

“As I look from my house I can still see some smoke, there’s no other thing I can see. When I went in the morning and to see what happened, I only saw ashes. I see people stopping by in their cars and some school children standing out there but nothing we can do to help them right now”.

As a safety precaution, the Ministry of Education has stepped in and decided to shut down the school today and a decision is expected to be made on how the school can continue to operate and accommodate the 400 affected students.

The school has a roll of over 800 students.

No one was injured in the incident

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