How the dormitory looks after the fire
Hundreds of female students of the Kwahu Ridge Senior High School at Obo in the Kwahu South District of the Eastern Region have been displaced after fire gutted the girls' dormitory.
The fire occurred on Wednesday, June 29, 2022, around 11:20 am.
The fire destroyed mattresses, beds, trunks, uniforms of students, books, provisions, dresses, monies, and other personal belongings before the fire was finally extinguished by firefighters.
The incident happened when students were engaged in various sporting disciplines as part of a sports week celebration.
Some 64 female students who couldn’t salvage anything except the sports kits they were wearing on-field have been sent home to return on Monday as arrangements are made to get them uniforms and other essentials. The rest of the displaced students are perching with mates in other dormitories leading to overcrowding.
Most of the affected students are final year students preparing to write their West Africa Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASCE).
Speaking on Agoo FM on behalf of the Headmistress, the Chairman of the Parents Teachers Association (PTA) Mr. E. A Acheampong appealed to stakeholders to come to the aid of the school to support the affected students and rebuild the dormitory.
The Member of Parliament for Mpraeso, Davis Opoku Ansah, has visited the school and donated GHC 20,000 cash as relief intervention.
The Eastern Regional Minister, Seth Kwame Acheampong, accompanied officials of the National Disaster Management Organization in the region and DCE for the area Emmanuel Atta Ofori Snr. also visited the school on behalf of President Akufo-Addo.
He said the President has directed he fast-tracks mobilization of the needed resources to ameliorate the plight of the students.
“I want to sympathize with you first of foremost, it’s very unfortunate that such a bad incident has occurred. I have a firm believer and person of faith that this will not happen again. My understanding is that immediately the fire broke, the MCE came over and assisted the firefighters to bring the fire down… and he informed me that the Member of Parliament also visited you and donated a handsome GHC 20, 000 to the school."
“I bring you greetings from President Akufo-Addo. Unfortunately when you guys have the accident, at that time he was not in Ghana. But he has been informed and he immediately asked me that I stop all that I am doing in the region to come, so that I will come and see you at KRISTECH and bring you his greetings . He has therefore ordered me to ensure that we fast-track an emergency accommodation for you. So I needed to stop whatever I was doing in Koforidua and get in here to find out the facts myself then I will be able to report same to him, and then together we will look for the needed resources to come and make life comfortable for you again. So I want to assure you that you’re going to see the completion of the old project and even getting a new one," the Minister said.
The Regional Minister announced that the NADMO will mobilize some relief items including mattresses, rubber buckets among others in the short term.
Meanwhile, the cause of the fire outbreak is being investigated .