65 Anambra Catholic Secondary School students escape death as fire guts school hostel in Awada

No fewer than 65 students of Don Bosco Secondary School in Awada Obosi, near Onitsha, Anambra State narrowly escaped death at the weekend when two hostels in the school suddenly caught fire and burnt to ashes.
The incident at the school, which is owned by the Catholic Church, happened barely one month after a fire explosion killed many people and destroyed property worth huge amount of money at Nnewi. One of the hostels has 30 students living inside, while the other has 35. Both are located upstairs in the block and were brimming with students who just re¬turned from the Christmas and New Year holidays.
The first hostel got burnt on Tuesday morning, while the second incident happened on Wednesday after¬noon.
The students were lucky to have escaped the Tuesday morning inferno because they were awake and were preparing for classes when the fire started burning. Students in the other hostel were outside when the second fire started on Wednesday afternoon.

Rev Fr Charles Onyekachikwu Uzoeto, who conducted The AUTHORITY on Sunday round the burnt hostels, described the fire incidents as very mysterious since there were no traces to the cause.
He said “may be it was an electrical fault. As I am talking with you, we cannot point to what exactly caused the fire, we suddenly noticed smoke coming out from the upstairs as the students were shouting fire! fire! on that Tuesday morning.

“Then we called the fire service men on phone, the fire men from Awka and Okpoko responded but there was delay on their arrival be-cause of the bad condition of the roads around the school”.
He explained that before the arrival of the fire men, the hostel has been razed but fortunately those around pre¬vented the fire from spreading to other buildings in the school.
He recalled that the same thing happened on Wednesday and the fire men encoun¬tered same hitches on the road and could not save the hostel from the inferno.
He expressed great worry that the fire men could have saved the hostels if not the terrible conditions of the roads leading to school.
On the damage done, Fr. Uzoeto said “I cannot do the estimate because a lot of things were burnt. One, the building roofs was totally burnt.
“Secondly the students’ books, sandals, laptops, phones, uniforms and other clothes and the whole beds in both hostels were razed to ashes”. He appealed to the Anambra State Governor, Chief Willie Obiano and the chairman of Idemili North Local Council Area to give attention to the roads in the area and also assist the school and the students affected by the fire with aids to enable them move on.