Hundreds of students of the Peaceland College of Education, Enugu escaped death by whiskers on Thursday, when fire gutted some parts of the school’s female hostel.
The institution is located opposite the Matured Students Programme of the Enugu State University of Science and Technology, near the popular Nkpokiti junction, at Independence Layout, Enugu.
Many students were said to have sustained injuries when students were scampering to different directions as confusion engulfed the premises.
However, there are conflicting accounts as to what triggered the fire.
While some said it was caused by power surge some said a student left an electrical appliance on and went to class.
Though no life was lost in the inferno, it was gathered from some staff of the college that the fire destroyed the roofs, ceilings, windows, beddings among others, at the top floor worth over N30 million.
The fire, it was gathered also destroyed some certificates and other credentials of the students.
Some lecturers who spoke to correspondent on condition of anonymity, said save for timely intervention of men of the Enugu State Fire Service the fire would have razed down the entire hostel and other classroom blocks.
One of the lecturers’ said that the fire started on the top floor of one of the major hostel blocks destroyed ND certificates and other credentials of the students.
A student who gave her name as Chinwe Odo said, “We were in our different classes when we suddenly heard the sound of explosion and when we went out to find out, we saw fire coming out from one of the rooms in the hostel.
“Some of us, especially HND students came to school with our OND Certificates because we were told that there would be verification by people from Abuja. Those certificates were razed by the fire”.
However, a senior staff of the college, who preferred anonymity, told journalists that the destruction in the school was huge.
“Though, no student was in the room where the fire started, but we suspect that somebody might have plugged a device and forgot to put it off.
“As a result, we lost a lot. The roofing, the ceilings, a lot of things up there. In fact we cannot put a figure to the destruction. But we really lost property worth over N30 million to that fire.
“But we thank the men of the Enugu State Fire Service. Without them, the entire buildings here would have gone into the flames”, the staff said.
At the time of filing this report, the school authority had yet to issue a statement on the incident.
