A fire outbreak has destroyed six rooms in a girls’ dormitory at Wa Islamic Senior High School in the Upper West Region, displacing 138 students and destroying their personal belongings.
The fire, which occurred on Sunday evening, was brought under control by personnel of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), preventing it from spreading to adjoining buildings.
No casualties were recorded.
Addressing journalists after touring the affected facility, the Headmaster of the school, Alhassan Bafara, said the fire service responded promptly and effectively extinguished the blaze.
According to him, six rooms in the dormitory block were completely affected, with the displaced students losing almost all their belongings.
“We held a management meeting and decided that the 138 girls who were badly affected should return home temporarily over the weekend while arrangements are made for their accommodation.
Fortunately, the incident did not disrupt the ongoing examinations because Form Three students had completed school, allowing some of the remaining students to be relocated to available classrooms,” he said.
Mr Bafara described the incident as unfortunate, noting that it was not the first fire outbreak to hit the school.
“This is not the first, neither the second nor the third time; if my memory serves me right,” he said, adding that the latest incident came as a surprise despite efforts by the school to improve safety.
He explained that following previous fire incidents, management engaged qualified and certified electricians to completely rewire parts of the dormitory block where electrical faults had earlier been identified.
The school also strengthened supervision by deploying student cadets to monitor the dormitories every evening until lights-out.
“We have done a lot to improve safety, so this incident came as a surprise to us,” he stated.
“Our internal investigations have not revealed anything suspicious. We suspect it could be an electrical fault, but we will wait for the official findings,” he added.
He said preliminary information suggested that the fire might have resulted from an electrical fault, although investigations were still ongoing.
The MCE acknowledged the accommodation challenge created by the incident, indicating that the assembly would work with relevant stakeholders to complete an uncompleted accommodation facility that could help house displaced students.
The Upper West Regional Fire Commander, Assistant Chief Fire Officer Iddrisu Imiran, said firefighters arrived at the scene shortly after receiving the distress call and quickly focused on preventing the fire from spreading to nearby structures.
“Our priority was to contain the fire and stop it from extending to adjoining buildings, and that objective was achieved,” he said.
