Fire guts girls’ hostel at Benedictus Secondary School in Zomba

A girls’ hostel at Benedictus Secondary School in Zomba was on Tuesday gutted by fire forcing authorities to send home forms one to three pupils.

The fire which started around past nine in the morning when the girls were attending classes burnt the whole hostel to ashes and nothing was rescued.

A visit to the scene of the accident found all girls especially form four students who are expecting to start Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) examinations next week in a somber mood.

In an interview, the head teacher of the school Ganizani Jabesi Nyanda said all the items which were inside the hostel such as students’ school materials, clothes and beddings worth over K2 million were burnt to ashes.

Nyanda said solar electrical equipment for the hostels such as batteries; controllers and inverters have also been destroyed.

“We suspect an electric fault to be the cause of the fire,” said Nyanda.

He added that the school has found temporary shelter at a nearby nursery school for the girls who are about to sit for their MSCE examination.

In her remarks, Judith Mwale Yohane one of the form 4 students who has been affected by the fire said the accident will negatively affect their performance.

She called on well-wishers to come to their rescue and assist them with clothes, books, beddings and exam writing materials such as Mathematical Instruments, calculators and pens.

St Benedictus is only a secondary school with a boarding facility accommodating over 80 girls at Chingale.

The facility was built by Benedict Sisters and has been operating for one and half years where the first students to sit for MSCE are the ones who have been affected.

The school only had boarding facilities for female students but male students were non-boarders.

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