Bibiani: Fire guts Anglican JHS; all certificates of students burnt

Five classroom blocks of the Bibiani Anglican Junior High School have been gutted by fire in the Western North Region.

The staff common room as well as classrooms has been massively affected by the fire, which is believed to have started after school hours on Thursday, May 26.

Connect FM's Western North Correspondent Nana Fynn reports that properties running into millions of Ghana cedis have been destroyed.

The headmaster of the school, Arthur Nyame, told the host of Connect FM's Omanbapa morning show Nhyiraba Paa Kwesi Simpson that all certificates of students who have completed their final examinations have been burnt.

“Books, computers, flat screen television, photocopy machines, and many others have been destroyed. The most worrying aspect of the situation is that all certificates of students who have completed school cannot be found. There is no way I can get students to study in such a building. It looks very dangerous. We are currently preparing final year students for examinations so we will need a temporary location to teach them,” he added.

He blames the unstable electricity situation in the area for causing the fire.

“The electricity went off around 9:00am whilst we were still in school. It came back and went off again so I switched off every gadget and went home around 4 pm [but] I had a call later that the school was on fire,” he narrated.

A teacher of the school, Isabella Nsiah, indicated that she received a distress call about the situation and called the Ghana National Fire Service to assist but she was told that their vehicle is faulty.

“I received a phone call that the school was on fire so the best I could do at the time was to call the Fire Service. I called them and I was told their vehicle was not working but they will liaise with other fire stations for response,” she indicated.

According to her, the school is currently relying on the Ghana Education Service (GES) before teaching and learning can continue.

“At the moment, the staff common room is gone. The entire building is collapsing. All documents and gadgets have been burnt to ashes but for injuries, I do not know of any at the moment. We are currently relying on the Ghana Education Service to get us a place for teaching and learning to continue as soon as possible,” she added.

---3news.com