By Louise Jobe
The administrative block of St. Peter’s junior and secondary school was consumed by fire in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
Mr. Frances M. Gomez, the vice principal of the senior secondary school said the incident happened around 1 am on Tuesday. He explained he was woken by one of their security Mr. Modibo Sidibeh, who informed him that their administrative block caught fire.
He said at the time he came out, the fire was already out of control and he quickly contacted the Brikama Fire Station who came, but couldn’t do much about the situation.
“As I am talking to you right now, we are unable to establish the fact about what may have caused the fire,” he said.
He said after putting off the fire, the matter was reported to Banjulinding Police Station who came to the scene. He added that in the morning (Tuesday), a team of criminal investigative police officers came to the scene to do their work. The Principal and the vice principal of the school went with the police to give their statements to the police at the station.
Mr. Gomez said the incident would affect the school because they have just begun effective teaching and learning following the long summer holidays.
“This will really take us back because the records were all burnt and there is nothing that can help the administration to settle down. This will take us time to settle down,” Gomez said.
Mr. Gomez stressed that the school’s administration will do its utmost best to ensure that lessons continue, adding that the incident wouldn’t retard the operations of the school.
The headteacher of the junior secondary school, Madam Las said she does not know the cause of the fire but added that last week Monday, there was an attempt to burn Mr. Gomez’s office and the matter was reported at Banjulunding police station.
“This has caused serious damage to the school because we have lost all our records, the students’ examination results of this years and the past examinations,” she said.
