Agogo State College Fire Unsettles Students

A fire outbreak that caused a stir last Friday at the Agogo State College in the Asante Akyem North district of the Ashanti region slowed down academic activities on Monday. The students have however remained calm.

The fire broke out at the school's House 7 dormitory last Friday evening when news reached them that fire had gutted their dormitory.

The students could not do much to bring the fire under control because they were at evening prep and the alarm was raised around 8:30 pm, but the fire was thought to have started way earlier.

Before their tear-filled eyes, the fire consumed all their belongings from trunks and chop boxes to mattresses. Not even the bed frames were spared by the fire.

None of the 46 first-year students who occupy that dormitory lost their lives, something which has been a consolation for the loss of their personal belongings.

The cause of the fire has not been known yet but headmaster of the school Mr. Kwasi Agyapong Ntraa said a fire was set behind the school by an unknown person and that could travel to the dormitory which is quite close to where the fire was set.

"We saw that someone had set fire around the school but we dont know exactly how it extended to the dormitory. But you know that in harmattan seasons, fire travels very fast," he said.

Mr. Ntraa said the school has made arrangements in other dormitories for the affected students to perch with their colleagues until the refurbishment is complete.

Meanwhile, the Asante Akyem main office of the Ghana National Fire Service has begun an investigation into the fire to ascertain the actual cause.