President’s ‘great emotion’ after two dozen children die in horror fire at Liberian school
- A faulty electric cable may have caused fire that gutted a dormitory and school building where students slept
.png?itok=arIb17P0)
Police are investigating a huge fire at a Liberian school dormitory that killed at least 26 pupils and two teachers, in one of the worst disasters of its kind for the West African nation.
The boys were sleeping at the Koranic school when the overnight fire began Tuesday, said police spokesman Moses Carter, adding that an electrical fault could have caused the blaze.
President George Weah visited the site in Paynesville, on the outskirts of the capital Monrovia, and said the cause was still unknown.
“We are here to encourage parents of the victims to have strength, because it is painful to lose your kids in this manner,” Weah said.
The president’s office said 26 pupils between the ages of 10 and 20 died along with two teachers. The police spokesman said 27 students had been killed.
On Wednesday evening, the president of neighbouring Guinea, Alpha Conde, said several of his country’s nationals died in the blaze.
In a statement he expressed “great emotion” over the deaths and gave his “deepest condolences to the Liberian people and the Guinean community in Liberia” adding that he was following the investigation closely.
“We extend our sympathy to the bereaved families. We don’t know the cause of the fire yet, but we will encourage our investigators to find how it happened,” he added.
Rescuers in white masks and surgical gloves carried the children’s bodies in bags from the burnt-out building as crowds of people and relatives pressed together outside.
“Our team is investigating the cause of the fire,” the police spokesman said.
School owners charged after 20 Indian students die in dormitory fire, some of whom jumped to escape flames
“It may be electrical,” he added, while refusing to rule out the possibility that the fire was a criminal act.
Mulbah, a teacher at another school, said that he tried to get to the boys but that the heat was too intense to go near the building. Steel security bars blocked the windows.
Makeshift dwellings clogging the alleys around the school also caught on fire, stalling rescuers.
“It took two, three hours for the fire brigade to get in,” he said.
The victims were buried swiftly in a collective ceremony, in the Muslim tradition.
In an earlier tweet, Weah offered condolences to the families of those affected.
“My prayers go out to the families of the children that died last night in Paynesville City as a result of a deadly fire that engulfed their school building,” he wrote.
“This is a tough time for the families of the victims and all of Liberia.”
The Liberian authorities are all too familiar with deadly fires, often caused by malfunctioning generators, though “not on this scale,” the presidential spokesman said.
Japan stabbing: 11-year-old and two adults dead, 16 pupils injured after horror attack at bus stop
The majority of Liberians are Christian but there is a sizeable minority of Muslims among the 4.5 million population.
Liberia is one of the least developed nations in the world, and its recent history has been blighted by civil wars and the deadly Ebola virus.
Additional reporting by The Washington Post
