Kano school fire: How we lost mates – Survivors

When the 500 female students of Government Girls’ Secondary School Jogana, Kano State, retired to bed on Sunday, November 29, none of them had the premonition that the Alhaji Sani Yaro Ahmed hostel would be gutted by fire that fateful night. However, few hours into the night, precisely at 8 pm, the screaming of students […]

When the 500 female students of Government Girls’ Secondary School Jogana, Kano State, retired to bed on Sunday, November 29, none of them had the premonition that the Alhaji Sani Yaro Ahmed hostel would be gutted by fire that fateful night.
However, few hours into the night, precisely at 8 pm, the screaming of students from the hostel who were trapped in the inferno, drew the attention of not only the teachers but other students, the school supportive staff and the neighboring community, to their rescue.
Despite the prompt response, seven students lost their lives and 25 others were injured with the students’ properties destroyed.
Some of the survivors, who spoke to Daily Trust on condition of anonymity, said most of the deceased were not actually killed by the fire but by stampede during the incident.
One of them, said most of the deceased were pulled down by their mates while attempting to escape from the fire, saying they were mostly suffocated by smoke.
 “I think we were over 500 in the hostel and only one door that was left opened that night while the rest were padlocked. So when the fire started, we all rushed to the only available door to escape and that was what caused the stampede that led to the death of seven of the students,” she explained, adding that the stampede could have been avoided and the casualties minimised if the other doors were open.
Another survivor said she was woken by the screaming of other students as she was already deep in her slumber when the hostel went up in flames.
“I never thought I would survive the fire but God in His infinite mercy saved my life. We were highly traumatised by the incident. The students were trapped in the burnt hostel as most of them had retired to bed when the fire started,” she narrated.
“We had heard many of them screaming while the fire was burning the building. Many of them were burnt by melted aluminum roofing sheets. There was nothing we could do to save their lives at that time. It was a terrible moment. May Allah forgive them all and grant them Aljannah Alfirdaus,” she added.
They also stated that most students accommodated in the affected hostel, lost their belongings to the fire.
Daily Trust observed that most of the survivors suffered severe burns and are receiving treatment at the Murtala Mohammed Specialist Hospital in the state capital.
A resident of Jogana, Aminu Sidi Jogana, revealed that the November 29 fire incident was the fourth of its kind in the school.
“I think the fire is mysterious. My advice to the school authority is to seek the intervention of God by organising special prayers. I am sure this will help in solving this problem,” he said.
Jogana said but for the quick intervention of some private companies in the area who assisted with fire fighting vehicles, the story could have been different.
Another resident, Isyaku Muhammad, said he was at a tea shop about to take his order when they noticed flames from the direction of the school, adding that they all rushed to the scene of the incident to save the students.
 However, a teacher in the school, who craved for anonymity, blamed the management of the school for over stretching the capacity of the hostel with huge number of students.
“You need to go and see the place, no right thinking father will allow his daughter to be accommodated in that hostel. In addition to that, all three exit doors were under lock and key, tell me how can the students escape when there is incident of fire outbreak?” he lamented.
He suggested that government should do something urgently to prevent re-occurrence of the unfortunate incident, noting that “government should either build more hostels to de-congest the existing ones, or depopulate the school by sending some students to other schools.”
 Muhammad advised the management of the school to always keep eyes on the students, as according to him, they may be the cause agents of the fire. “There was electricity supply to the school when the fire started,” he noted.
In a related development, 72 hours after the GGSS Jogana incident, another fire outbreak hit Government Secondary School, Kwankwaso in Madobi local government area of the state.
Though no life was lost and no student was injured, 350 students accommodated in the affected buildings lost their belongings to the fire.
The fire which started around 8 am, destroyed all the eight rooms at the upstairs of the one-story building of Block ‘A’ Hostel in the school.
One of the affected students told Daily Trust that they were in their classes taking their lessons when the fire started: “We saw a heavy smoke coming from one of the rooms upstairs and then followed by fire.”
He added that: “Even before we rushed to the affected hostel, other rooms had also been caught by the fire and within a few minutes, the rooms were razed down. We have lost all our belongings.”
The affected students have been relocated to another building pending the rehabilitation of the burnt hostel. The fire was put out by the combined effort of the state fire service and Civil Defence officials.
Kano State Deputy Governor Prof. Hafiz Abubakar, who is also the commissioner of education, visited the two affected schools and the victims of GGSS Jogana at Muhammadu Sanusi General Hospital, Yankaba.
Abubakar, who expressed the administration’s condolences to families of the victims, assured that government would pay the medical expenses of the injured students.
He said the government would also set up a technical committee to identify the immediate and remote causes of the fire as well as advise government on best modality to repair the damaged hostel.
At GSS Kwankwaso, the deputy governor directed the State Senior Schools Management Board to engage the Fire Service Agency to sensitise the management and students of public secondary schools on fire prevention and safety measures during fire outbreaks.
Abubakar, who lamented the frequent fire outbreaks in schools in the state, said that the measure was necessary to prevent future occurrences of such incidents.
He warned the students to ensure that all electrical appliances were switched off after use, even when there was no electricity and shun cooking in the dormitories.
He later distributed mattresses, blankets and pillows to the affected students.