Students stranded as fire destroys Anambra school

Expectations of teachers at Community Secondary School, Ebenebe, in Awka North Local Government Area of Anambra State for the second term resumption were dashed following a mid-day fire that recently engulfed the school.

Hundreds of students were stranded after their classrooms were razed by the fire.

The school, said to be serving four communities in the area as well as some neighbouring communities in Enugu State, was reportedly reduced to ashes by the fire said to have been caused by bush burning.

Daily Trust gathered that the fire, which started around 2:00p.m. on the fateful day and raged on into the night, razed down a total of 12 classroom blocks of the school.

Reacting to the incident, a teacher in the school, Mrs. Edith Modebe, lamented the impact of the fire on the school’s resumption as a number of textbooks, exercise books and students’ lockers were lost to the inferno.

She was however, full of appreciation to God that the tragedy took place while the students were still on holidays. She appealed to the state government and well- meaning individuals to come to their aid.

Also speaking, a student of the school, who simply identified herself as Emily, wondered why such calamity would befall the school at the beginning of the year.

She decried the huge loss the incident would cause the students, and the time it would take the authorities concerned to rebuild the affected structures.

“I wonder how long it will take to bring the structures back to shape. Only God knows how long we are going to stay at home which would definitely affect our studies,” she decried.

On his part, the youth chairman of Uwani village, Ebenebe, Ndubuisi Chiwuba, described the incident as shocking and devastating, and attributed it to lack of proper management.

Chiwuba who noted that the school, which is surrounded by bushes, was faced with numerous challenges including lack of security and absence of perimeter fencing, resulting in the theft of the sound-proof power generating set installed by the state government.