St. John’s Girls Secondary School in Kaloleni, Kilifi County was on Thursday closed after a fire burnt down the institution’s dormitory.
Students were left counting losses in the Wednesday incident which took place at around 8 pm when they were attending their evening lessons.
While giving his two cents on the tragic occurrence, Kaloleni Member of Parliament Paul Katana disclosed he had agreed with the school management to release the students to ease them from panic attack.
"Yesterday at around 8 pm, I received a call that this school was burning. I was in a meeting with fellow MPs but I was able to contact the headteacher to confirm the incident. I want to laud the County Government for its effort in sending a fire brigade to quell the inferno," stated Katana.
“The students are traumatised a bit, we have allowed them to go and stay with their parents. Meanwhile, we are making some arrangements to have a makeshift dormitory. As you can see everything has been destroyed,” the MP added.
Katana who confirmed zero fatalities, stated that the students are expected back in school anytime from next week.
Police officers also arrived at the scene of the incident on time and helped put out the fire in a joint effort with the firefighters and community members.
The cause of the fire is yet to be established but investigations have commenced to unravel more details.
In a similar incident on January 13, learning activities were halted at Nyakoiba Mixed Secondary School in Kisii County after an inferno razed two dormitories.
Area residents were quick to respond to the tragedy and helped to contain the fire, with County firefighters arriving minutes later.
Property worth Ksh10 million was destroyed with a huge chunk of it belonging to students. Even so, no injuries were reported.
While commenting on the matter, Kisii County Commissioner Tom Anjere expressed worried about the surging cases of fires in schools and further called on collaborative efforts to curb future incidents.
