No fewer than 80 students have been displaced from their boarding house
accommodation at the Don Bosco Secondary School and Youth Centre, Obolo
Obosi, near Onitsha following a fire incident.
The Rector of the school, Rev. Fr. Charlse Uzoeto, who conducted
journalists around the charred remains of the hostel on Sunday, said the
fire broke out while the students and teachers were in school.
Uzoeto said the students had been sent back to their parents following
an agreement between the management of the school and parents as there
was no place for them to stay.
The Rector said the property of the students could have been saved, but
the fire service was unable to reach the school in good time due to the
bad access road.
“It was a serious fire incident. Nobody can say exactly what happened or how it happened, but everyone was in school.
“We can only speculate about the real cause, but we thank God that no life was lost.
“About 80 students are housed in the two wings of the hostel; we cannot
quantify the extent of damage as virtually everything the students had
in the hostel was lost,” he said.
According to him, the bedding, the entire roof of the building and even
the structure of the building were destroyed by the fire.
“The fire services would have reached here much earlier, but on their
way, they discovered that they could not access the place because of bad
road leading to this place.
“After meandering through the markets with all the difficulties, before they came here, we were already counting our losses.
“I think if the roads were good, they would have reached here much earlier.
“They made efforts as human beings but they could not jump, they could
not fly, and that reduced the chances of rescue,” he said.
Uzoeto called on government, corporate organisations and kind
individuals to come to the aid of the school to enable it to commence
its normal academic activities.
“The assistance we need is obvious, it is a private mission school built
with the best intention, but the resources are not there like before.
“We need help from government, organisations and individuals to recover from this colossal loss,” he said.
Don Bosco Secondary School, Obosi is an educational institute, managed
by the Salesian Priests of the Catholic Church, and is one of the three
in Nigeria.(NAN)
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