King’s Academy Secondary school pilled in ashes after catching fire at Midnight Wednesday/ Photo: Adia Jildo
By Adia Jildo
King’s Academy Digital Secondary School located in Munuki has been burnt into ashes after it caught fire on Wednesday midnight.
Over 90 digital equipment got burnt into ashes when the school caught fire from unknown source. Students who came to the school in the morning were sent to Bright Boma Secondary school.
The managing director for King’s Academy secondary school Baya James Mulu said he was shocked to hear about the burning of the school.
“This is a digital school aiming at putting up a lot of digital gadgets. There are 58 old computers and 30 new ones and a lot thing” he said.
Hiri Ali, the school’s technician of King’s Academy said the fire broke out when they were preparing to go to bed.
“We were watching the game of champion’s league. After the game immediately we organized everything to go to bed when we heard a sound. We entered the class to see what was happening” he said.
He said the school is going through a tough unexpected time which has distracted the learning schedule of students.
“We are just in grief because we never expected something of this kind to happen at this time” he said.
“We saw fire through the window from the side of the neighbor. We tried to get water and stop the fire through the window. The fire expanded through the sealing board since it was made out of wood,” Ali explained.
He said the fire brigade reached when the school was fully blazed with fire. The Director said a lot of losses have been incurred which will really pull us back.
He assured continuation of the school as the students will resume in a sisterly school of the same administration.
He called on schools to take up insurance to prevent losses and inconveniences that would affect their school system and learning as well.
Angelina Joyce, a witness and a victim of the fire said she saw fire when her mother called her out.
“The fire started from behind my kitchen. I had not even cooked for days since I had just returned from the hospital that day” she explained.
Angelina said there was theft as they were rescuing their property when the neighbor came to their rescue.
“When the fire brigade came, a lot of water was poured but got over. We finished putting off the fire with the small water we had to put it off. It was too much that without the help of the neighbors we would not manage” she added.
Joyce Sunday, a neighbor said it was a great surprise that the school had just installed computers for such a loss.
She however said she is not even aware of the fire and its source.
“I have never seen a school burn to this extend. I cannot say anything because I even don’t have energy” she said.
The Director for Civil Defense Service in Central Equatoria Maj. Gen Pascal Ladu said the case of the fire was unknown and where it had extended from.
“We could not establish the cause of the fire from the people around there. We have sent some people there to go and carryout detailed investigation” he said.
“It was around 12:15 AM this morning when we got the report that the school caught fire” he said.
“The whole building caught fire but we were able to rescue the neighbor. The fire was also burning to the neighbor’s home” he said.