Fire on Monday gutted the female dormitory block of the Pong Tamale Senior High School in the Northern region, destroying learning materials and other properties of final year students writing their final Certificate Examination.
The fire started at about 11.30am. What triggered the blaze still unknown but five rooms were completely ravaged.
It is, however, suspected to have been sparked by power fluctuation caused by an electrical gadget used in preparing a meal at the dormitory by some of the candidates.
Three fire tenders deployed from the regional and municipal capitals, Tamale and Savelugu arrived late at the scene and took nearly an hour to control the fire.
The students were in the examination hall when the fire broke out while junior students were home for holidays.
No casualty was recorded.
A staff of the school, Mutaka Mohammed Nashiru told Starr News the fire has consumed learning materials including text books leaving the candidates very “confused”.
“Everybody (students) is looking distressed so for now nobody is in the right position to talk anything good. They are just struggling to get their materials intact.
“They whole thing has been mixed up. Some of the students were crying while writing their papers today,” Mutaka who witnessed the burning explained.
The staff said authorities heard some students screaming for help but ignored, thinking the students were raising false alarm until they saw flames coming out from the building.
Mutaka said the municipal education director had visited the school and was expected to hold an emergency meeting with the headmistress.
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM/Eliasu Tanko
