Some parents of Federal Government Girls College (FGGC) Umuahia, have blamed authorities of the school for the latest fire incident in the girls college, which is the 3rd time in 8 years. The school was last week, razed by a late afternoon fire while most of the students were writing their examinations in their classes.
This is the third time in 8 years the school would be recording fire incidents, with previous occurrences taking place in 2014 and 2020 respectively with several properties belonging to students and other school materials going up in flames.
During last week’s outbreak, three hostel blocks of the girls college were engulfed by fire before the intervention of men of Abia State Fire Service who stopped the rampaging fire from spreading to other blocks.
Though no life was lost to the fire, about 200 students lost their belongings valued at millions of naira ,to the inferno. The latest fire, according to Principal of the school, Mrs Ngozi Idika Kalu and other staff, began when the students were already in their classes writing third term exams, adding that it started like a smoke from one of the hostels before turning to full blown fire.
But the explanations of the school officials did not go down well with some parents of the Old Umuahia-based FGGC, who were seen lambasting the school authority for allegedly not doing enough to prevent incessant fire incidents in the school.
Many of the parents who rushed to the school to know the conditions of their children after the fire incident could not hide their displeasure with the development as they slammed the school management for the repeated fire occurrences, attributing the incidence to alleged negligence.
They wondered why under 8 years, one school would be recording 3 fire incidents which damaged property of the students. A mother (name withheld) demanded compensation from the school management for their alleged carelessness.
“By 2014, my neighbor’s daughter lost her cloths, beddings, school material, cash and beverages to fire in this school. Also around 2020 when my own daughter entered this school there was another fire problem here.” The distraught mother went on, “This year again fire has burnt this school again.
It is true that nothing happened to my daughter and others, but what if this thing happened at night? Those in charge of this school have been displaying gross negligence on safety of the children.” She noted that the population of the federal school was going down every year as according to her, repeated fire incident in the school was leading some parents to register their kids elsewhere.
But an official of the school faulted the claims by the parents as according to him, it would be wrong to draw conclusions when investigations had not been concluded. The Chief Fire Officer of Abia State Fire Service Mr Arua Nnanna confirmed the development, adding that his men mobilized to the scene on receiving a distress call.
He noted that the fire may have been caused by power surge but thanked God that his men were able to extinguish the fire before it could spread to other blocks. Arua said several properties belonging to school and stuff were damaged by the fire. He recommended the installation of smoke detector in the school while advising all residents of the State to be careful with all electric appliances and liquid substances that ignite fire in their homes.
Arua who acknowledged that officials and other sympathizers were already battling the fire before the arrival of his men, noted that the fire extinguisher installed in the school were deployed during the incident by the school authority but was not enough to stop it but explained that the arrival of the fire Service officials brought the situation under control.
The scene of the fire outbreak has so far been visited by Chief Okey Ahaiwe who represented Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State. Speaking at the scene, the State government lamented the damage caused by the incident promised to assist the management and Parents Teachers Association (PTA) of the school to ameliorate their losses. The State government said though the institution is a federal College, it would still assist it.
