A fire has destroyed six rooms in a girls’ dormitory at Wa Islamic Senior High School in Ghana’s Upper West Region, forcing 138 students to leave the school temporarily after losing most of their personal belongings.
The blaze broke out on Sunday evening and was brought under control by personnel from the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) before it could spread to nearby buildings.
School headmaster Alhassan Bafara said the fire service responded promptly and managed to extinguish the flames after arriving at the affected facility.
Six rooms in the dormitory block were completely destroyed, leaving the students without accommodation and with almost all of their possessions lost.
“We held a management meeting and decided that the 138 girls who were badly affected should return home temporarily over the weekend while arrangements are made for their accommodation. Fortunately, the incident did not disrupt the ongoing examinations because Form Three students had completed school, allowing some of the remaining students to be relocated to available classrooms,” he said.
The school’s management is now making arrangements for the affected students to be accommodated elsewhere. In the meantime, the girls have been asked to return home temporarily over the weekend.
Mr Bafara described the incident as unfortunate and said the school had experienced several fires in the past.
“This is not the first, neither the second nor the third time, if my memory serves me right,” he said.
He added that the latest outbreak had come as a surprise because the school had taken steps to improve safety following earlier incidents.
Management had previously hired qualified and certified electricians to rewire sections of the dormitory block where electrical faults had been identified.
The school had also increased supervision in the dormitories, with student cadets assigned to patrol the buildings each evening until lights-out.
“We have done a lot to improve safety, so this incident came as a surprise to us,” he stated.
The GNFS prevented the fire from reaching adjoining buildings, limiting the damage to six rooms in the affected dormitory block. However, the incident has left 138 girls displaced and without most of their personal belongings.
The school was able to avoid disruption to ongoing examinations because Form Three students had already completed school. That allowed some of the students affected by the fire to be moved temporarily into classrooms while longer-term accommodation arrangements are considered.
