A fire of unknown origin ravaged the St. George’s High School on Wednesday afternoon, leaving hundreds of students displaced.
At the time the fire started at the school building, located along Company Path on the north eastern side of the historic St George’s Cathedral, between North Road and Church Street, in Georgetown, six students and four teachers were in the building but they managed to escape without harm.
Fire Prevention Officer Sheldon Sauns told Stabroek News that the Guyana Fire Service received a call about the fire at about 13:25 hrs and six fire tenders responded.
The fire lasted for approximately 2 hours and 20 minutes.
In a statement, the Guyana Police Force reported that Juliet Mattis, a 61-year-old retired teacher on contract with the school, said while she was teaching reading lessons to six students in the lower flat of the building she was alerted by a janitorial staff that the building was on fire.
“Ms. Mattis immediately instructed the students to evacuate the building along with the cleaner and a 21-year-old teacher who was on duty at the said time,” the police said.
The statement noted that the building was a two-storey wooden and concrete building measuring approximately 60 feet in width by 120 feet in length facing west in a fenced compound.
Minister of Home Affairs Robeson Benn, who spoke with reporters at the scene, said it was too soon to say what caused the fire, the smoke from which could be seen from a significant distance away.
Benn explained that the watchman, a cleaner and a few students, who were among the few persons present on the premises when the fire started, were being interviewed by detectives.
He noted that by the time the fire tenders responded, the fire was well underway. Although he said the building was “lost,” Benn added that he was satisfied with the response of the fire service.
So, too, was Fire Chief Gregory Wickham, who told this newspaper in an invited comment that firefighters did an excellent job.
Although Benn said the building was lost, this newspaper observed that it was the upper flat of the two-storey building that was gutted, while the ground floor sustained significant damage.
The fire, which started from the northeastern side of the building, attracted a huge crowd. However, the heavy police presence ensured that firefighters were able to fight the flames without any impediments as the area was eventually cordoned off.
Stabroek News observed that the fire tenders responded promptly and with adequate amounts of water.
Officials said the school had 421 students registered and 25 teachers on staff. The students who were present at the time of the fire were attending a literacy camp hosted by the Ministry of Education. (The Ministry of Education, through the Literacy Department and Regional Literacy Coordinators, is conducting a series of literacy camps during the July/August period in regions 2, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10 and the Georgetown educational district.)
Education Minister Priya Manickchand, who was also at the scene, said the ministry was “examining a few options” to determine whether another school could accommodate all of the school’s students on an interim basis or whether the different grade levels would have to be separated.
She, however, admitted that the possibility of another school accommodating all of the students was highly doubtful.
Calling the destruction of the school “extremely inconvenient,” she noted that while learning happens in many different ways and alternative arrangements could be made, the school catered to students living within its proximity.
Over the past year a number of schools have been damaged by fire. In June last year, a fire destroyed a section of the North Ruimveldt Multilateral School in Georgetown.
In September of the same year, t the North West Secondary School, Mabaruma, was also damaged by a fire, the cause of which was later found to be arson.
In a statement yesterday, the GFS said that on the day of the incident at around 9.20 pm a security guard attached to the Region One school reported hearing three explosions and seeing smoke and fire emanating from the direction of the Head Teacher’s Office.
In February this year, firefighters from the Linden Fire Station spared the Christianburg-Wismar Secondary School in Region Ten from major damage after a handyman discovered a fire on the second flat.
In June, a small fire erupted in the Charlestown Secondary School laboratory due to an experiment that went awry. It was quickly contained and no major damage was done.
