By Abdulai Zulkaninu
At about 1:30PM on Monday, 18th March, 2024, Fire broke out at Falahiat English and Arabic Primary school in the DASS electoral area, located in the West Gonja municipal assembly. The fire outbreak happened when school children for the Kindergarten block B had closed at 12PM.
Residents of the area took the fight upon themselves whilst awaiting the arrival of the Ghana National Fire Service. Unfortunately, the fire tender got stuck on its way to the school due to unstructured or unplanned buildings.
The incident saw men and women fetching water from houses in buckets to put off the fire, a spirit, highly recommended by many.
Hon Sumaila Hafiz Kamara, the Assembly Member for Damongo Senior High School (DASS) electoral area has showered praises to the residents of the area and Damongo in general for demonstrating high levels of commitment to safeguarding their properties. The Assembly Member also commended the Ghana National Fire Service for their efforts in complementing the residents efforts to put off the fire at Falahiat kindergarten block.
“I wish to thank the residents of the DASS electoral area and the good people of Damongo for the love shown to the Falahiat school and children.
They have demonstrated pure patriotism by coming together to put off the fire before the Fire service officials arrived due to accessibility challenges”
The Ghana National Fire Service fire tender got stranded while on its way to fight the fire. The service later managed to get to the scene after the residents almost controlled the fire.
Hon Hafiz Kamara said the fire tender failed to get to the school due to inaccessibility of roads in the area which is a major headache for the community. This is because of the way we structured our housees.
Hon Hafiz Kamara therefore, appealed for support to get the school block back to its fine state to enable learning activities to go on smoothly. He also called on the West Gonja municipal assembly, the office of the MP, NGOs, FBOs and other relevant stakeholders to come onboard to support the school.
School children, teachers, some old students of Falahiat English and Arabic school who were also impressed by the high spirit exhibited by the residents of the area, expressed gratitude for the love towards the school children.
The cause of the fire wasn’t immediately determined as the block B isn’t connected to electricity. The school authorities are expected to assist Ghana National Fire Service to complete the investigations into the incident.
The School Improvement Support Officer (SISO) for the area, Mr. Iddrisu Lamin expressed gratitude to the people of the area for quick reactions against the fire outbreak. He also, urged the teachers and pupils of the school to keep up the good relationship with the people as that is the only way the community members will always see the school as their property and will not hesitate to support the school, teachers and children when the need arises.
Mr. Lamin disclosed that no casualty to humans was caused. However, the school suffered the loss of a computer and books.
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