CITY NEWS 8 students injured in female hostel fire at Gwagwalada

At least eight students sustained injuries after an early morning fire outbreak in the female hostel of the Government Girls Secondary School (GGSS), Dukpa village in Gwagwalada Area Council of the FCT.

Our reporter learnt that the fire, which occurred last Thursday morning, but which cause was yet to be ascertained, burnt down a block of the female hostel and the belongings of the students.

A source at the school, who preferred anonymity, confided in our reporter on Saturday that the fire broke out at about 10:00am when the students were in their classrooms receiving lectures.

He said some students who saw a thick smoke billowing from the rooftop of the hostel raised an alarm.

The school management immediately alerted men of the fire service from Gwagwalada, he added.

But “before the arrival of fire service men, the fire had already burnt down virtually everything inside the hostel, including valuables of the students,” he said.

The Gwagwalada Divisional Fire Service Officer, Ebenezer Ogundele, said they received a distress call about the fire outbreak at the school and immediately mobilised to the school to put out the fire.

“But even when we tried to enquire from the school principal, she also said she did not actually know the cause of the fire,” he said.

He told our reporter that eight students that sustained injuries while attempting to evacuate some of their belongings during the fire outbreak were taken to hospital.

“We conveyed them in our ambulance to Army base hospital at Dukpa for treatment,” he said.

He added, “In fact, this year alone, this is the third time we are going to that school to put out fire, yet the school management is still saying they don’t know the cause of fire.”

Efforts to contact the principal of the school, Hajiya Fatima Mohammed, were abortive as she didn’t pick several calls put across to her phone and also did not reply to a text message sent to her on Saturday night.