Fire Service blames Tolon SHS fire outbreak on faulty electric heater

Preliminary investigations by the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) into the fire that ravaged the Tolon Senior High School girls dormitory in the Northern Region reveals that the fire might have been caused by faulty electric heater.

The GNFS says even though their investigations have not been concluded and that they are not concluding on the findings, they found out that some students were using the electric heater when the place caught fire.

Authorities at SHS on Thursday shut the school temporarily following the fire outbreak earlier.

The decision to close down the school was to allow authorities to put together a temporary accommodation for affected students.

The fire razed down the entire first floor of the girls' dormitory block which started around 9:00am.

Giving further details about the fire on 3FM's Sunrise hosted by Alfred Ocansey on Friday, the Northern Regional Public Relations Officer for the GNFS, Assistant Divisional Officer Grade II, Baaba Hudu, explained that “we have commenced investigations but we have not settled on the findings yet”.

“Preliminary investigations were done yesterday and today we shall continue. It was a sign of the usage of an electrical heater. Two of them actually and one was in use when the fire occurred but we are not concluding on that”.

ADOG II Hudu further said “the building is a one-story and the fire affected the first floor”.

“It has ten standard room…each contains 20 beds and each bed contains dual bed…it has about 226 beds at the top there. This means that almost 200 students are at the top there”.

The PRO said “all individuals have chop boxes, books, mattresses, among others and all these things come at the cost of the ravage of the fire”.

He added “the down floor was not affected”.

“However, we advised them to get an expert to access the building because the heat has affected the structure which will not be good for them to live in such structure”.

—3news.com