NAIROBI, Kenya Nov 1 – Buru Buru Girls High School has been closed after Sunday night’s fire incident that left more than 20 hospitalised.
The school’s Board of Management Chairman Lazarus Opicho announced the decision to close the after a meeting with parents on Monday.
“Parents will be allowed to go home with the girls and the date when they are supposed to come back will be communicated,” he told the parents.
There was a stand-off between the parents and the school management since Saturday night when they were not allowed to go back home with their children after the fire incident.
According to the school management, the fire started at a cubicle in Kingdom dormitory with reports that there had been warnings from unnamed students that they will torch the school.
“Several students were rushed to hospital after inhaling the smoke fumes,” an official at the school said, “We don’t have injuries from the fire.”
But video footage that went viral on social media showed some of the students jumping off from higher floors as onlookers watched helplessly after they were denied access to the school to take part in the emergency rescue efforts.
According to Buru Buru Divisional Police Chief Francis Kamau, all the students taken to hospital were complaining of suffocation.
“We don’t have any student with burns,” he told Capital FM News on telephone soon after the fire that caused panic at the institution.
He said the cause of the fire was not immediately clear, but an investigation had been launched.
Soon after the fire broke out, more than a dozen parents arrived at the school and demanded to be allowed to go home with their children leading to a stand off.
“No one is telling us anything and that is why we want to be allowed to go home with our children,” one parent said.
Police and the school management had a hard time restraining the agitated parents as fire fighters struggled to put out the blaze.
“All we want to know is about the safety of our children but no one is telling us, they are just saying we should wait,” another parent said.
A statement sent to the parents by their association chairperson on Saturday night however, appeared to downplay the incident.
“We confirm that the fire incident was in 1 of the 45 cubicles of the Kingdom Hostel. It was immediately contained such that even curtains are intact. The incident caused serious panic among students. Any affected student is in safe hands,” it stated.
