St. Joseph’s Seminary School Closed Indefinitely as Police Arrest Three Students
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UPDATE: Police have arrested three students after a fire razed two dormitories at St. Joseph Seminary School in Molo, Nakuru, leading to the institution’s indefinite closure.
A fire broke out at St. Joseph’s Seminary Senior School in Molo, Nakuru County, with videos and images from the scene showing flames and thick smoke billowing from part of the institution.
The fire is believed to have started at around 10 pm, when the students were getting ready for bed, and the students and teachers successfully escaped before the building went up in flames, and no student or teacher suffered injuries, according to County officials.
Footage from the fire shows flames ravaging the building as smoke billows into the night sky.
Property worth millions of shillings was destroyed, and the students were unable to save any of their property except what they had on their backs.
“The flames were all over the place, and we just ran for our lives,” one student who said he lost all his property stated. Another student said, “The building was consumed in a few minutes.”
According to authorities, the cause of the fire remains unknown, and investigations will only start when the site is safe for humans.
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Investigating the Cause and Perpetrators of School Fires
The fire at St. Joseph’s Seminary is just the latest to hit Nakuru schools.
It happened three days after 16 students died in a dormitory fire at Utumishi Girls’ Academy on Thursday, May 28th.
The Utumishi fire, believed to have been started at 1 am while 220 girls were asleep, was locked from the outside, trapping the students.
“Ten students were identified through autopsy, but six were burned beyond recognition,” stated one official who oversaw the autopsy at Utumishi post-mortem.
Eight students were arrested following the Utumishi fire, and investigations revealed CCTV footage of students pulling mattresses and setting them ablaze.
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Impact of School Fires on Student Safety
Authorities stated school dormitories have in recent weeks become an increasing concern after fires were reported at Miranda Boys, Nguumo Boys, and Magereza Academy in the weeks before this event.
President William Ruto expressed his condolences to the bereaved in an outpouring of grief, describing the Utumishi fire as an “unimaginable tragedy”.
The Deputy President Kithure Kindiki stated that he was “deeply shocked and profoundly saddened” by the deaths of the 16 girls and added that “to lose young girls full of hope is a stark reminder of how fleeting life is”.
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Utumishi Girls Academy Dormitory caught fire. PHOTO/ The Standard.
