Police in Abakaliki, the Ebonyi State capital have confirmed a devastating gas fire incident at an all-girls vocational and catering training school in the State.
Though security agencies are silent on the number of casualties, a source at the area told AIT that one of the students died as a result of severe burns she sustained from the gas fire explosion, which also injured Nine others.
The victims aged between 12 and 19 years reportedly sustained various degrees of burns when the gas cylinder exploded as one of them was cooking in the kitchen section of the school while answering cell phone calls which allegedly ignited the fire.
The training centre, identified as Good Shepherd Vocational and Catering School, situated at the Mile 50 area, Amikeaba in Ebonyi Local Government Area of the State is said to be owned by a religious body.
Five out of the Nine victims are said to be on life support machines at the Alex Ekwueme Federal University Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki, and the rest are responding to treatment.
Among them is 17-year old Chisom Nwizi, the daughter of Emmanuel Nwizi, a staff of the Nigeria Television Authority, NTA Abakaliki.
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Nwizi told members of Ebonyi State branch of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) who visited him at the Accident and Emergency Unit of the Hospital that his daughter sustained severe burns in the accident.
“I got a call around 6:30am that the kitchen section of Good Shepherd Catering School has been engulfed by fire and I rushed to the place immediately because my daughter is one of the students there.
“So, when I got there, I saw students discussing in groups. One of them said that it is the carelessness of one of the students, that if one of the students didn’t enter the kitchen with her phone, the incident wouldn’t have happened.
“I moved into the school proper and I was told that the victims have been taken to a police clinic and on getting there, I was informed that they have been taken to Accident and Emergency Unit of Alex Ekwueme Federal University Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki.
He said when he got there, he saw it was very severe and it affected nine students.
“My daughter sustained severe burns but I have hope that she will survive. The school authority is doing well, they have been trying since the incident occurred. They have not asked any parent to bring a dime, they are still saying after saving lives first before they will engage parents to bring whatever they have.
“I commend the effort of the Reverend sisters managing the Catering school. Yesterday, they stayed in the hospital till 12 midnight, I really appreciate their efforts”, he said.
Authorities of the school are yet to make any official statement on the fire incident.
(Editor: Okechukwu Eze)
