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.
Confirming the incident to journalists, the Rector of the school, Rev. Fr. Charles Uzoeto on Sunday, said the fire broke out while the students and teachers were still in school.
According to him, the students had been sent back to their parents following an agreement between the management of the school and parents as there is no place for them to stay.
“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,” the Rector said.
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 bad access road.
“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.
“The bedding, the entire roof of the building and even the structure of the building were destroyed by the fire,” the Rector confirmed, adding that the fire services would have reached there 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, though they made efforts as human beings but they could not jump, they could not fly, and that reduced the chances of rescue,” he added.
Uzoeto called on government, corporate organisations and kind individuals to come to the aid of the school to enable it commence its normal academic activities.
“We need help from government, organisations and individuals to recover from this colossal loss.
“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,” he added.
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