20230804 Miraculous escape for students as fire razes part of Ranchi school
India Aug 04 2023 “Building” “Schools”
Dead : dead 0 or unknown Burnout : 1 to 29 Injured : injured 0 or unknown
Miraculous escape for students as fire razes part of Ranchi school
Updated: 2023-08-04
RANCHI: A huge fire broke out in Amar Sahid Thakur Vishwanath Shahdeo Zila Mukhyamantri Utkrisht Vidyalaya early on Thursday morning leading to evacuation of a large number of students.
Sources said the 184-year-old school lacked basic fire-fighting measures. The blaze, which had started from a room, spread to several classrooms before the firemen arrived. The school, which was established in 1839, has a lot of wooden structures.
The school authorities said the fire started from a room where broken furniture was kept. A Class VI student who had just entered their classroom after morning prayers spotted smoke from the window. After he raised an alarm, the teachers rescued all students and their colleagues from the adjacent classrooms also.
The school also reported the matter to police and the local fire station. Fire engines, however, had to struggle to reach the spot due to the narrow lanes. The delay led to the spread of the fire to adjacent rooms. As many as five fire tenders were pressed into service and they took almost more than two hours to douse the flames. The firemen also had to break the roof of some of the classrooms as there were burning wood inside.
The benches, desks, fans, blackboard and other assets in the classrooms were completely damaged.
School lacked fire-fighting system: Officer
Fire officer Rajendra Ram said his department had conducted a mock drill on fire prevention in the school last April.
He said despite the fire department’s request, the school had not set up firefighting facilities nor taken the NOC.
School principal Majula Ekka said a few firefighting equipment were kept in the school but she was not sure whether all of them were functional. “In any case they were insufficient to handle this big a fire. We could evacuate students safely. It is suspected that short circuit could have caused the fire, ” she added.
Web Source: The Times of India