Fire ravages St Charles SHS dormitory; students’ properties destroyed

The Cardinal Dery dormitory went up in flames while students were in class
A dormitory of the St Charles Minor Seminary Senior High School in Tamale went up in flames Monday afternoon destroying students’ personal belongings, a development that is likely to render the students homeless.

The fire, which started at 12:29pm at the Cardinal Dery dormitory, completely burned eight of the nine rooms at a time that students were in class.

It took the intervention of personnel from the Ghana National Fire Service to control the fire and prevent it from burning the last room in the dormitory.

A similar fire outbreak at the school in March 2017 destroyed the school’s two-storey dormitory block, leaving the school with only two rooms as dormitories for the entire student population.

The situation forced authorities to convert some classroom blocks into dormitories as a temporary measure to house the about 500 student population as at November 2018.

The two-storey dorm destroyed by fire in March 2017. Photo: Daily Graphic
At the school’s 65th anniversary celebration in November last year, the Headmaster of the school, Mr Polycarp Kuusokub Beyelle, expressed concern about inadequate accommodation facilities for students; something she said affected the school’s intake last academic year.

“Since the incident happened in March last year, I have written to the Ghana Education Trust Fund GETFund and other authorities but nothing has been done about it, although some officials came from the head office to inspect and make estimates of the cost involved.

“So far, it is only the old boys who have taken it upon themselves to renovate the few dormitories that are housing the students” he told the Daily Graphic.

The destruction of another dormitory in Monday’s fire outbreak is likely to exacerbate the already dire accommodation situation in the school.

Source: 3news.com