Chilonga Nursing School gutted again
Written by Millennium on July 26, 2019
PETER SICHALI writes
A PORTION of Chilonga Mission Nursing School in Mpika District was on Wednesday destroyed by fire.
Muchinga Province permanent secretary Joyce Nsamba and Commissioner of Police Joel Njase said the fire broke out between 10:30 hours and 11:00 hours at the men’s dormitory.
Ms Nsamba said preliminary findings indicated that the fire was caused by a heating element left on the power socket in the wall.
“I can confirm that Room 6 at Chilonga Nursing School male dormitory has been gutted, burning personal belongings of six students and school property whose valued is yet to be established,” Ms Nsamba said.
She said the fire started at 10:30 hours and was put out by the students using sand, water and fire extinguishers.
Ms Nsamba advised students to guard the school infrastructure jealously by adhering to school rules that forbids them from cooking food in the rooms, including warming water.
She said the school was gutted two years ago and was still under rehabilitation.
“It’s just a caution to our students to guard the infrastructure jealously. This school was built in 1962 and people that were using it did not experience such, why now?’’ she asked.
Mr Njase said the fire was quenched by workers, students and members of the community before police and the fire brigade from Mpika could arrive at the scene.
He said the value of gutted articles was not yet known and that police had opened an inquiry file.
“It was reported that one of the roommates Clement Wamulima left his heating element to the socket and the source of fire is suspected to have started from the heating element which was plugged and all articles inside the room were burnt to ashes,” Mr Njase said.
Two years ago a fire swept through the same school causing extensive damage to personal and institutional property.
