A hostel at the Bolgatanga Polytechnic at Sumbrungu in the Upper East Region has been destroyed by fire. Items belonging to the students which are yet to be quantified were destroyed in the fire which broke out last Saturday. The one-storey, 12-room apartment was originally meant to be a classroom block but was converted into a residential facility to accommodate more students at the polytechnic. Eight rooms out of the 12 were completely razed down by the inferno, which was attributed to an electrical fault which was subsequently fuelled by the explosion of gas cylinders which were being kept in the rooms. Each room had at least two gas cylinders, while one of the rooms on the upper floor had as many as 12 cylinders in it. In addition, a number of coal-pots, table-top gas cookers and electric stoves were found in the debris. Items destroyed included personal effects, academic materials, desktop and laptop computers, television sets, entertainment gadgets, cash. No casualty was, however, recorded. The President of the Students Representative Council (SRC), Mr Solomon Awariya, said the fire started from one of the rooms on the ground floor around 1 p.m. on Saturday and before long it spread to the upper floor and all efforts by some students to retrieve their belongings proved unsuccessful. He said an emergency call was made to the Ghana National Fire Service in Bolgatanga and firemen were sent to help put out the fire. He regretted the loss of vital documents in the blaze, adding that just recently the SRC renovated the Junior Common Room at the cost of GH¢2,100, only for it to lose everything to the fire. He added that among the items destroyed was a brand new public address system, purchased at the cost of GH¢1,500, which was being kept in one of the rooms that got burnt. Asked why they failed to utilise the fire extinguishers provided on the floors during the initial stages of the fire, Mr Awariya retorted that ever since they reported to campus, no student had been given the necessary training to handle the fire extinguishers. A Senior Hall Tutor, Mr Emmanuel Akanpaadgi, expressed regret at the incident and said in the interim, management had made available two structures to serve as temporary accommodation for the weekend pending management decision later. He disclosed that the authorities were arranging for food for the students, since most of them had lost everything. Queried as to why the authorities permitted the students to live in their rooms with explosive items such as gas cylinders, Mr Akanpaadgi said though management did not approve of that practice, it had to allow it based on some reasons offered by the students. He said management was in the process of providing a permanent common place for the students to do their cooking when the incident occurred.
No comments:
Post a Comment