By Laurina B. Lormia (Cub-Reporter)
Another fire disaster has ravaged a school and a worship center along the Tubman Boulevard, Varmoma Junction in District 9.
The Apostolic Foundation High School and the Fire for Fire International Ministries, along the Congo Town-Sinkor route were gutted by fire during the early afternoon hours of Monday, March 4, 2024.
According to some eyewitnesses, hundreds of students were chased out of classes by the incident which caused pandemonium among them.
The cause of the fire is yet to be known, but some eyewitnesses are pointing fingers at the Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC), which has been a major source of fire disasters recently.
According to the General Overseer of the Fire for Fire International Ministries, Enoch Baffour Annor, the Liberia National Fire Service arrived when everything was already burnt to ashes, stating,” It was a private water tanker that was called in by the Commander of Police to help quench the fire so that it would not extend to my office.”
One of the eyewitnesses who is a member of the Winners Chapel Church, but did not identify himself, said that he saw a little boy running from the school compound and knocking on the gate of the church, shouting ‘fire, fire’; and when they opened the gate, he saw some people pushing a car out of the church compound.
“Immediately, I started calling the police officers to come in the church compound, LEC was on in both buildings, but the fire actually started from the church building and went up to the school building,” he said.
One of the students of the school, identified as Faith said, “I saw the fire on the building of the church, they had solar system over the church, the wires on it were joined together when it caught fire; the fire went up straight to our class room.”
Another student, Standford Davis, said, “The fire started blazing while we were in class; one of my friends saw the fire while closing the window of the class and shouted ‘fire, fire’; in no time, our school administrators told us to get outside, that they will handle the situation.”
“The fire came from the back of the school, from the church yard, and started going up to the roof of the school, and other people were running there with sand to put off the fire,” Davis said.
Another student added, “We heard a noise from the 12th grade B, shouting that fire was on the school building; when we looked, there was no fire on the school building, but upon looking down, we saw smoke and fire from the church building and it kept intensifying.”
The Vice president of the school, Elijah G. Williams, said the fire started blazing from the church yard and caught up on the pipe in the church yard that is responsible for the school water which landed the fire on the roof top of the school.
